Quantifying gene expression control by growth and metabolism reveals distinct regulation of central carbon metabolism genes in yeast

Here we quantitatively describe the influence of cell growth rate and amino acid metabolic context on gene expression in the eukaryal model organism Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We show that growth rate and metabolic cues regulate ~70% of the yeast transcriptome and proteome, thereby exerting gene expression control in a global manner. We find that the growth rate-dependent differential gene expression largely reflects changing availabilities of the mRNA and protein synthesis machineries, while metabolic cues influences gene expression through the availabilities of amino acids and nucleotides. Genes in central carbon metabolism, however, are regulated independently of these global physiological controls, demonstrating distinct mechanisms to control their expression levels.