Detection of multistability, bifurcations, and hysteresis in a large class of biological positive-feedback systems.

ABSTRACT: It is becoming increasingly clear that bistability (or, more generally, multistability) is an important recurring theme in cell signaling. Bistability may be of particular relevance to biological systems that switch between discrete states, generate oscillatory responses, or "remember" transitory stimuli. Standard mathematical methods allow the detection of bistability in some very simple feedback systems (systems with one or two proteins or genes that either activate each other or inhibit each other), but realistic depictions of signal transduction networks are invariably much more complex. Here, we show that for a class of feedback systems of arbitrary order the stability properties of the system can be deduced mathematically from how the system behaves when feedback is blocked. Provided

SUBMITTER: Angeli D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC357011 | biostudies-literature | 2004 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature