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Fig. 2 | Genome Biology

Fig. 2

From: RNAs competing for microRNAs mutually influence their fluctuations in a highly non-linear microRNA-dependent manner in single cells

Fig. 2

Titration-induced threshold determines the optimal crosstalk. a, b mCherry mean fluorescence (a proxy for p 1 in the model, Fig. 1 b) is plotted against eYFP (a proxy for the constitutive expression p 0 in the model). Error bars are evaluated on the biological replicates. Continuous lines are model fits. The gray curves in (a) and (b) are the model prediction with the parameters fitted from the data and miRNA/target effective interaction strength g 1. The black arrow points to the model-predicted threshold. A threshold (or non-linear behavior) emerges when increasing mCherry MRE (a) while it disappears when increasing mCerulean MRE (b). The onset of the threshold is very close to the origin of the plot, indicating a relatively small amount of free miRNA. The intensity of crosstalk (measured in terms of fold-repression F with respect to the unregulated fluorophores) depends on the particular combination of MRE on both exogenous targets (ce). F is the ratio between the value of mCherry in the absence of miR-20a MREs and its value in the presence of MREs for each eYFP bin and for each N on mCerulean. Purple and cyan circles in legends represent the plasmids coding for the mCherry and mCerulean fluorophores. a.u. arbitrary units, eYFP enhanced yellow fluorescent protein, MRE miRNA regulatory element

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