Perfect and Near-Perfect Adaptation in Cell Signaling

Adaptation is an important basic feature of cellular regulation. Previous theoretical work has identified three types of circuits-negative feedback loops, incoherent feedforward systems, and state-dependent inactivation systems- that can achieve perfect or near-perfect adaptation. Recent work has added another strategy, termed antithetic integral feedback, to the list of motifs capable of robust perfect adaptation. Here, we discuss the properties, limitations, and biological relevance of each of these circuits.