Bimodal gene expression in noncooperative regulatory systems.

ABSTRACT: Bimodality of gene expression, as a mechanism contributing to phenotypic diversity, enhances the survival of cells in a fluctuating environment. To date, the bimodal response of a gene regulatory system has been attributed to the cooperativity of transcription factor binding or to feedback loops. It has remained unclear whether noncooperative binding of transcription factors can give rise to bimodality in an open-loop system. We study a theoretical model of gene expression in a two-step cascade (a deterministically monostable system) in which the regulatory gene produces transcription factors that have a nonlinear effect on the activity of the target gene. We show that a unimodal distribution of transcription factors over the cell population can generate a bimodal steady-state output witho

SUBMITTER: Ochab-Marcinek A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3009792 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature