Figure 1.

Unregulated steady-state mean levels of mRNAs and sRNAs along with regulated levels of these molecules are measured. The measured quantities allow determination of the average mRNA transcription rate k_m and decay rate τ_m relative to the sRNA production rate k_s. If k_s is held fixed, and the conditions are varied, the proposed scheme leads to simultaneous determination of fold-changes in the rate of transcription and the rate of mRNA decay. Note that the mRNA/sRNA interaction parameter can be arbitrary. (A) Kinetic scheme for mRNA and sRNA production and decay including coupled mutual degradation. (B) The proposed setup involves steady-state measurements for three strains: Δ(sRNA), WT, and Δ(mRNA).