Absolute Quantification of Protein and mRNA Abundances Demonstrate Variability in Gene-Specific Translation Efficiency in Yeast

Lahtvee PJ, Sánchez BJ, Smialowska A, Kasvandik S, Elsemman IE, Gatto F, Nielsen J

Cell Syst 4 (5) 495-504.e5 [2017-05-00; online 2017-05-00]

Protein synthesis is the most energy-consuming process in a proliferating cell, and understanding what controls protein abundances represents a key question in biology and biotechnology. We quantified absolute abundances of 5,354 mRNAs and 2,198 proteins in Saccharomyces cerevisiae under ten environmental conditions and protein turnover for 1,384 proteins under a reference condition. The overall correlation between mRNA and protein abundances across all conditions was low (0.46), but for differentially expressed proteins (n = 202), the median mRNA-protein correlation was 0.88. We used these data to model translation efficiencies and found that they vary more than 400-fold between genes. Non-linear regression analysis detected that mRNA abundance and translation elongation were the dominant factors controlling protein synthesis, explaining 61% and 15% of its variance. Metabolic flux balance analysis further showed that only mitochondrial fluxes were positively associated with changes at the transcript level. The present dataset represents a crucial expansion to the current resources for future studies on yeast physiology.

Bioinformatics Support and Infrastructure [Collaborative]

Bioinformatics Support, Infrastructure and Training [Collaborative]

PubMed 28365149

DOI 10.1016/j.cels.2017.03.003

Crossref 10.1016/j.cels.2017.03.003

pii: S2405-4712(17)30088-1