Figure 1.

Analysis of differential translation using Xtail or babel is associated with increased false positive findings. (A) Gene expression may be modulated via changes in translational efficiency leading to altered protein levels (top panel); buffering wherein the ribosome occupancy of the mRNA remains unaltered despite changes in corresponding mRNA level (middle panel); and congruent changes in mRNA abundance and its ribosome occupancy. (B) Hierarchical clustering of a simulated dataset with a control and treatment condition including polysome-associated mRNA and total mRNA samples where no mRNAs are regulated (i.e. a NULL model; data provided in Supplementary file 2). (C) P-value and FDR density plots for analysis of differential translation comparing treatment to control for each method using the data from (B).