Robust Adaptation and Homeostasis by Autocatalysis

Robust homeostatic mechanisms are essential for the protection and adaptation of organisms in a changing and challenging environment. Integral feedback is a control-engineering concept that leads to robust, i.e., perturbation-independent, adaptation and homeostatic behavior in the controlled variable. Addressing two-component negative feedback loops of a controlled variable A and a controller molecule E, we have shown that integral control is closely related to the presence of zero-order fluxes in the removal of the manipulated variable E. Here we show that autocatalysis is an alternative mechanism to obtain integral control. Although the conservative and marginal stability of the Lotka-Volterra oscillator (LVO) with autocatalysis in both A and E is often considered as a major inadequacy, homeostasis in the average concentrations of both A and E (< A > and < E >) is observed. Thus, autocatalysis does not only represent a mere driving force, but may also have regulatory roles.