Skip to main content

Optimizing information flow in small genetic networks. III. A self-interacting gene

Author(s): Tkacik, Gasper; Walczak, Aleksandra M; Bialek, William

Download
To refer to this page use: http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/pr19w4b
Abstract: Living cells must control the reading out or “expression” of information encoded in their genomes, and this regulation often is mediated by transcription factors—proteins that bind to DNA and either enhance or repress the expression of nearby genes. But the expression of transcription factor proteins is itself regulated, and many transcription factors regulate their own expression in addition to responding to other input signals. Here we analyze the simplest of such self-regulatory circuits, asking how parameters can be chosen to optimize information transmission from inputs to outputs in the steady state. Some nonzero level of self-regulation is almost always optimal, with self-activation dominant when transcription factor concentrations are low and self-repression dominant when concentrations are high. In steady state the optimal self-activation is never strong enough to induce bistability, although there is a limit in which the optimal parameters are very close to the critical point.
Publication Date: 5-Apr-2012
Electronic Publication Date: 5-Apr-2012
Citation: Tkacik, Gasper, Walczak, Aleksandra M, Bialek, William. (2012). Optimizing information flow in small genetic networks. III. A self-interacting gene. PHYSICAL REVIEW E, 85 (10.1103/PhysRevE.85.041903)
DOI: doi:10.1103/PhysRevE.85.041903
ISSN: 1539-3755
Pages: 041903-1 - 041903-16
Type of Material: Journal Article
Journal/Proceeding Title: PHYSICAL REVIEW E
Version: Author's manuscript



Items in OAR@Princeton are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.