Phenotypic Nonspecificity as the Result of Limited Specificity of Transcription Factor Function

Figure 3

A simplified representation for the nonspecific model for transcriptional regulation. The pattern of binding of three TFs (TFa red circle, TFb blue square, and TFc magenta triangle) to a region of a genome with four genes (A-C) is shown. To the right of each distribution is the expected proportion of genes in the genome with no, 1, 2, and 3 TFs bound. The dotted box indicates a gene with two TFs bound, which in this simplified representation, is sufficient to recruit RNAP for transcription. Transcription (wiggly line) is an emergent property of random TF distributions. To the right is the expected proportion of genes in the genome with no, 1, 2, and 3 of these three TFs bound.