Mark Featherstone, Nanyang Technological University
14 December 2015
This is an interesting and useful study. My quibble is not with the science but with the paper's assertion that "transcriptional" responses were investigated. What the authors actually examined were transcript levels, which is great. However, transcript levels are determined by a large number of processes of which the act of transcription by RNA polymerase is only one. I think it's important to restrict the words transcription and transcriptional to that thing that RNA polymerase does, but I know I'm in the minority.
Transcripts, yes. Transcriptional, no
14 December 2015
This is an interesting and useful study. My quibble is not with the science but with the paper's assertion that "transcriptional" responses were investigated. What the authors actually examined were transcript levels, which is great. However, transcript levels are determined by a large number of processes of which the act of transcription by RNA polymerase is only one. I think it's important to restrict the words transcription and transcriptional to that thing that RNA polymerase does, but I know I'm in the minority.Competing interests
No conflict of interest to report.