Related papers: Hill Function-based Model of Transcriptional Respo…
The Hill coefficient is often used as a direct measure of the cooperativity of binding processes. It is an essential tool for probing properties of reactions in many biochemical systems. Here we analyze existing experimental data and…
One goal of human genetics is to understand how the information for precise and dynamic gene expression programs is encoded in the genome. The interactions of transcription factors (TFs) with DNA regulatory elements clearly play an…
Genome-wide experiments to map the DNA-binding locations of transcription-associated factors (TFs) have shown that the number of genes bound by a TF far exceeds the number of possible direct target genes. Distinguishing functional from…
Describing reaction rates in stochastic bio-circuits is commonly done by directly introducing the deterministically deduced Hill function into the master equation. However, when fluctuations in enzymatic reaction rates are not neglectable,…
Genes are connected in complex networks of interactions where often the product of one gene is a transcription factor that alters the expression of another. Many of these networks are based on a few fundamental motifs leading to switches…
We study the effects of multiple binding sites in the promoter of a genetic oscillator. We evaluate the regulatory function of a promoter with multiple binding sites in the absence of cooperative binding, and consider different hypotheses…
Transcription factors (TFs) are regulatory proteins that bind DNA in promoter regions of the genome and either promote or repress gene expression. Here we predict analytically that enhanced homo-oligonucleotide sequence correlations, such…
Non-coding RNA sequences play a great role in controlling a number of cellular functions, thus raising the need to understand their complex conformational dynamics in quantitative detail. In this perspective, we first show that single…
Transcription factors (TFs) are key regulators of gene expression. Based on the classical scenario in which the TF search process switches between one-dimensional motion along the DNA molecule and free Brownian motion in the nucleus, we…
We report a new mechanism for allelic dominance in regulatory genetic interactions that we call binding dominance. We investigated a biophysical model of gene regulation, where the fractional occupancy of a transcription factor (TF) on the…
Transcription factors (TFs) interact with a multitude of binding sites on DNA and partner proteins inside cells. We investigate how nonspecific binding/unbinding to such decoy binding sites affects the magnitude and time-scale of random…
We study theoretical ``design principles'' for transcription factor-DNA interaction in bacteria, focusing particularly on the statistical interaction of the transcription factors (TF's) with the genomic background (i.e., the genome without…
Evolutionary trajectories and phenotypic states available to cell populations are ultimately dictated by intermolecular interactions between DNA, RNA, proteins, and other molecular species. Here we study how evolution of gene regulation in…
Much of the complexity observed in gene regulation originates from cooperative protein-DNA binding. While studies of the target search of proteins for their specific binding sites on the DNA have revealed design principles for the…
Evolution of gene regulation is crucial for our understanding of the phenotypic differences between species, populations and individuals. Sequence-specific binding of transcription factors to the regulatory regions on the DNA is a key…
While coding regions in the genome have a direct interpretation in terms of protein products, significant fractions are non-coding and yet control essential biological functions. Unlike the genetic code, there is no "lookup table" that…
Transcription regulation is largely governed by the profile and the dynamics of transcription factors' binding to DNA. Stochastic effects are intrinsic to this dynamics and the binding to functional sites must be controled with a certain…
Riboswitches, structured elements in the untranslated regions of messenger RNAs, regulate gene expression by binding specific metabolites. We introduce a kinetic network model that describes the functions of riboswitches at the systems…
Non-coding RNA are functional molecules that are not translated into proteins. Their function comes as important regulators of biological function. Because they are not translated, they need not be as stable as other types of RNA. The TKF91…
Transcription factors (TFs) exert their regulatory action by binding to DNA with specific sequence preferences. However, different TFs can partially share their binding sequences due to their common evolutionary origin. This `redundancy' of…