Bistability in biochemical signaling models.

ABSTRACT: This Teaching Resource provides lecture notes, slides, and a student assignment for a two-part lecture on the principles underlying bistability in biochemical signaling networks, which are illustrated with examples from the literature. The lectures cover analog, or graded, versus digital, all-or-none, responses in cells, with examples from different types of biological processes requiring each. Rate-balance plots are introduced as a method for determining whether generic one-variable systems exhibit one or several stable steady states. Bifurcation diagrams are presented as a more general method for detecting the presence of bistability in biochemical signaling networks. The examples include an artificial toggle switch, the lac operon in bacteria, and the mitogen-activated protein kinase ca

SUBMITTER: Sobie EA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4118931 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature