Protein disorder is positively correlated with gene expression in Escherichia coli.

We considered, on a global scale, the relationship between the predicted fraction of protein disorder and the RNA and protein expression in Escherichia coli. Fraction of protein disorder correlated positively with both measured RNA expression levels of E. coli genes in three different growth media and with predicted abundance levels of E. coli proteins. Though weak, the correlation was highly significant. Correlation of protein disorder with RNA expression did not depend on the growth rate of E. coli cultures and was not caused by a small subset of genes showing exceptionally high concordance in their disorder and expression levels. Global analysis was complemented by detailed consideration of several groups of proteins.