A structured population modeling framework for quantifying and predicting gene expression noise in flow cytometry data

We formulated a structured population model with distributed parameters to identify mechanisms that contribute to gene expression noise in time-dependent flow cytometry data. The model was validated using cell population-level gene expression data from two experiments with synthetically engineered eukaryotic cells. Our model captures the qualitative noise features of both experiments and accurately fit the data from the first experiment. Our results suggest that cellular switching between high and low expression states and transcriptional re-initiation are important factors needed to accurately describe gene expression noise with a structured population model.