Deterministic and stochastic simulations of simple genetic circuits

Ofer Biham, et al. "Deterministic and stochastic simulations of simple genetic circuits." Banach Center Publications 80.1 (2008): 71-82. <http://eudml.org/doc/282150>.

@article{OferBiham2008,
abstract = {We analyze three simple genetic circuits which involve transcriptional regulation and feedback: the autorepressor, the switch and the repressilator, that consist of one, two and three genes, respectively. Such systems are commonly simulated using rate equations, that account for the concentrations of the mRNAs and proteins produced by these genes. Rate equations are suitable when the concentrations of the relevant molecules in a cell are large and fluctuations are negligible. However, when some of the proteins in the circuit appear in low copy numbers, fluctuations become important and the rate equations fail. In this case stochastic methods, such as direct numerical integration of the master equation or Monte Carlo simulations are required. Here we present deterministic and stochastic simulations of the autorepressor, the switch and the repressilator. We show that fluctuations give rise to quantitative and qualitative changes in the dynamics of these systems. In particular, we demonstrate a fluctuations-induced bistability in a variant of the genetic switch and and noisy oscillations obtained in the repressilator circuit.},
author = {Ofer Biham, Nathalie Q. Balaban, Adiel Loinger, Azi Lipshtat, Hagai B. Perets},
journal = {Banach Center Publications},
keywords = {systems biology; genetic networks; genetic switch; feedback loop; stochastic analysis},
language = {eng},
number = {1},
pages = {71-82},
title = {Deterministic and stochastic simulations of simple genetic circuits},
url = {http://eudml.org/doc/282150},
volume = {80},
year = {2008},
}

TY - JOUR
AU - Ofer Biham
AU - Nathalie Q. Balaban
AU - Adiel Loinger
AU - Azi Lipshtat
AU - Hagai B. Perets
TI - Deterministic and stochastic simulations of simple genetic circuits
JO - Banach Center Publications
PY - 2008
VL - 80
IS - 1
SP - 71
EP - 82
AB - We analyze three simple genetic circuits which involve transcriptional regulation and feedback: the autorepressor, the switch and the repressilator, that consist of one, two and three genes, respectively. Such systems are commonly simulated using rate equations, that account for the concentrations of the mRNAs and proteins produced by these genes. Rate equations are suitable when the concentrations of the relevant molecules in a cell are large and fluctuations are negligible. However, when some of the proteins in the circuit appear in low copy numbers, fluctuations become important and the rate equations fail. In this case stochastic methods, such as direct numerical integration of the master equation or Monte Carlo simulations are required. Here we present deterministic and stochastic simulations of the autorepressor, the switch and the repressilator. We show that fluctuations give rise to quantitative and qualitative changes in the dynamics of these systems. In particular, we demonstrate a fluctuations-induced bistability in a variant of the genetic switch and and noisy oscillations obtained in the repressilator circuit.
LA - eng
KW - systems biology; genetic networks; genetic switch; feedback loop; stochastic analysis
UR - http://eudml.org/doc/282150
ER -