mRNA Abundance and Half-Life Measurements

The expression of many genes is regulated at multiple levels. For most genes, the predominant control is at transcription, and this is usually inferred from changes in mRNA levels that respond to specific stimuli. However, changes in mRNA stability may contribute to observed variation in mRNA abundance, and many such changes in mRNA stability probably remain undetected. The relative contributions of posttranscriptional regulatory circuits can only be detected by careful RNA analysis.