Decoupling between activation time and steady-state level in input-output responses.

ABSTRACT: Many biological processes, like gene regulation or cell signalling, rely on molecules (inputs) that bind to targets leading to downstream responses. In the gene regulation field, recent data have shown that higher transcription factor (TF) concentrations may increase transcription levels of a gene without affecting the gene activation time. We call this behaviour output decoupling. Motivated by these observations, here we investigate mechanisms for output decoupling in Markov process models where a readout molecule is produced downstream of ligand binding. Our focus is on identifying regimes where the steady-state level of the readout changes with input concentration, while the activation time, quantified by mean first-passage times, remains unaffected. Through a combination of anal

SUBMITTER: Ravanelli G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12439971 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature