Authors:
Jaroslav Albert
and
Marianne Rooman
Affiliation:
Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
Keyword(s):
Bistable genetic switches, Delays, Modeling gene expression, Moise, Robustness.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Agents
;
Artificial Intelligence
;
Bioinformatics
;
Biomedical Engineering
;
Enterprise Information Systems
;
Information Systems Analysis and Specification
;
Methodologies and Technologies
;
Operational Research
;
Simulation
;
Systems Biology
Abstract:
Among other functions, bistable genetic switches serve as decision-makers, accepting or rejecting noisy input signals. In some instances, e. g. during developmental stages, it is imperative that, once an input signal is accepted, the gene’s expression remains virtually unchanged for a certain period of time before evolving to its other stationary state. In this paper, we aim to tackle the question of what causes this delay to occur. We look at a particular model of a bistable switch and study the conditions which lead to delayed state transitions. Given that every biological system is subject to noise, it is imperative that any model capable of explaining and predicting these delays is robust against random parameter perturbations. Therefore, in order to test the robustness of the model, we subject the system to random noise and show that for particular combinations of parameter values, its effects on the delays are negligible. It is demonstrated that the ratio of protein to mRNA deg
radation rates plays a critical role in the system’s confidence to generate accurate delays.
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