Stimulus-induced modulation of transcriptional bursting in a single mammalian gene

Mammalian genes are often transcribed discontinuously as short bursts of RNA synthesis followed by longer silent periods. However, how these "on" and "off" transitions, together with the burst sizes, are modulated in single cells to increase gene expression upon stimulation is poorly characterized. By combining single-cell time-lapse luminescence imaging with stochastic modeling of the time traces, we quantified the transcriptional responses of the endogenous connective tissue growth factor gene to different physiological stimuli: serum and TGF-beta 1. Both stimuli caused a rapid and acute increase in burst sizes. Whereas TGF-beta 1 showed prolonged transcriptional activation mediated by an increase of transcription rate, serum stimulation resulted in a large and temporally tight first transcriptional burst, followed by a refractory period in the range of hours. Our study thus reveals how different physiological stimuli can trigger kinetically distinct transcriptional responses of the same gene.