Related papers: Positive feedback and noise activate the stringent…

Embryonic development is driven by spatial patterns of gene expression that determine the fate of each cell in the embryo. While gene expression is often highly erratic, embryonic development is usually exceedingly precise. In particular,…

In multicellular organisms, cells differentiate into several distinct types during early development. Determination of each cellular state, along with the ratio of each cell type, as well as the developmental course during cell…

We consider a reaction-diffusion model for a population structured in phenotype. We assume that the population lives in a heterogeneous periodic environment, so that a given phenotypic trait may be more or less fit according to the spatial…

Cellular responses to death-promoting stimuli typically proceed through a differentiated multistage process, involving a lag phase, extensive death, and potential adaptation. Deregulation of this chain of events is at the root of many…

Studies on the role of fluctuations in signal propagation and on gene regulation in monoclonal bacterial population have been extensively pursued based on the machinery of two-component system. The bacterial two-component system shows noise…

Here we investigate single-cell stochastic gene expression kinetics in a minimal coupled gene circuit with positive-plus-negative feedback. A triphasic stochastic bifurcation upon the increasing ratio of the positive and negative feedback…

The propagation of noise through parallel regulatory pathways is a characteristic feature of feed-forward loops in genetic networks. Although the contributions of the direct and indirect regulatory pathways of feed-forward loops to output…

While noise is generally associated with uncertainties and often has a negative connotation in engineering, living organisms have evolved to adapt to (and even exploit) such uncertainty to ensure the survival of a species or implement…

Convergence extension, the simultaneous elongation of tissue along one axis while narrowing along a perpendicular axis, occurs during embryonic development. A fundamental process that contributes to shaping the organism, it happens in many…

Bacteriophage-bacteria interactions are central to microbial ecology, influencing evolution, biogeochemical cycles, and pathogen behavior. Most theoretical models assume static environments and passive bacterial hosts, neglecting the joint…

Positive feedback regulation is ubiquitous in cell signaling networks, often leading to binary outcomes in response to graded stimuli. However, the role of such feedbacks in clustering, and in spatial spreading of activated molecules, has…

Fractional killing in response to drugs is a hallmark of non-genetic cellular heterogeneity. Yet how individual lineages evade drug treatment, as observed in bacteria and cancer cells, is not quantitatively understood. We analyse a…

Phenotype of biological systems needs to be robust against mutation in order to sustain themselves between generations. On the other hand, phenotype of an individual also needs to be robust against fluctuations of both internal and external…

In the context of epigenetic transformations in cancer metastasis, a puzzling effect was recently discovered, in which the elimination (knock-out) of an activating regulatory element leads to increased (rather than decreased) activity of…

The goal of this study is to develop a computational model of the progression of changes in mitochondrial phenotype resulting from infection with pathogenic mycobacteria. This ultimately will enable a large-scale virulence screen of mutant…

In order to grow in any given environment, bacteria need to collect information about the medium composition and implement suitable growth strategies by adjusting their regulatory and metabolic degrees of freedom. In the standard sense,…

Ecological and evolutionary dynamics have been historically regarded as unfolding at broadly separated timescales. However, these two types of processes are nowadays well documented to much more tightly than traditionally assumed,…

We define a measure of coherent activity for gene regulatory networks, a property that reflects the unity of purpose between the regulatory agents with a common target. We propose that such harmonious regulatory action is desirable under a…

Along the pathogenesis of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis (MTB), hypoxia-induced dormancy is a process involving the oxygen-depleted environment encountered inside the lung granuloma, where bacilli enter a viable, non-replicating state termed as…

Gene regulatory dynamics is governed by molecular processes and therefore exhibits an inherent stochasticity. However, for the survival of an organism it is a strict necessity that this intrinsic noise does not prevent robust functioning of…