Noise–plasticity correlations of gene expression in the multicellular organism Arabidopsis thaliana

• Arabidopsis exhibits strong noise–plasticity correlations in gene expression levels.
• Noise–plasticity correlations are robust in several gene groups in Arabidopsis.
• Noise–plasticity relationships in Arabidopsis differ from those in yeast and E. coli.

Gene expression levels exhibit stochastic variations among genetically identical organisms under the same environmental conditions (called gene expression “noise” or phenotype “fluctuation”). In yeast and Escherichia coli, positive correlations have been found between such gene expression noise and “plasticity” with environmental variations. To determine the universality of such correlations in both unicellular and multicellular organisms, we focused on the relationships between gene expression “noise” and “plasticity” in Arabidopsis thaliana, a multicellular model organism. In recent studies on yeast and E. coli, only some gene groups with specific properties of promoter architecture, average expression levels, and functions exhibited strong noise–plasticity correlations. However, we found strong noise–plasticity correlations for most gene groups in Arabidopsis; additionally, promoter architecture, functional essentiality of genes, and circadian rhythm appeared to have only a weak influence on the correlation strength. The differences in the characteristics of noise–plasticity correlations may result from three-dimensional chromosomal structures and/or circadian rhythm.