First-passage time approach to controlling noise in the timing of intracellular events.

ABSTRACT: In the noisy cellular environment, gene products are subject to inherent random fluctuations in copy numbers over time. How cells ensure precision in the timing of key intracellular events despite such stochasticity is an intriguing fundamental problem. We formulate event timing as a first-passage time problem, where an event is triggered when the level of a protein crosses a critical threshold for the first time. Analytical calculations are performed for the first-passage time distribution in stochastic models of gene expression. Derivation of these formulas motivates an interesting question: Is there an optimal feedback strategy to regulate the synthesis of a protein to ensure that an event will occur at a precise time, while minimizing deviations or noise about the mean? Counterintuitiv

SUBMITTER: Ghusinga KR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5278449 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature