Journal
PHYSICAL BIOLOGY
Volume 5, Issue 2, Pages -Publisher
IOP PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.1088/1478-3975/5/2/026005
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- NIGMS NIH HHS [PSO GM071508, P50 GM071508, K25 GM086909, R01 GM073186] Funding Source: Medline
Ask authors/readers for more resources
There is increasing experimental evidence that cells can utilize biochemical noise to switch probabilistically between distinct gene-expression states. In this paper, we demonstrate that such noise-driven switching is dominated by tails of probability distributions and is therefore exponentially sensitive to changes in physiological parameters such as transcription and translation rates. Exponential sensitivity limits the robustness of noise-driven switching, suggesting cells may use other mechanisms in order to switch reliably. We discuss our results in the context of competence in the bacterium Bacillus subtilis.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available