biostudies-literatureUnknown6Chepyala SRFunctionally similar pathways are often seen in biological systems, forming feed-forward controls. The robustness in network motifs such as feed-forward loops (FFLs) has been reported previously. In this work, we studied noise propagation in a development network that has multiple interlinked FFLs. A FFL has the potential of asymmetric noise-filtering (i.e., it works at either the "ON" or the "OFF" state in the target gene). With multiple, interlinked FFLs, we show that the propagated noises are largely filtered regardless of the states in the input genes. The noise-filtering property of an interlinked FFL can be largely derived from that of the individual FFLs, and with interlinked FFLs, it is possible to filter noises in both "ON" and "OFF" states in the output. We demonstrated the noiseScientific reports23607https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC4814832biostudies-literatureNoise propagation with interlinked feed-forward pathways.PMC4814832Yan CCWu YCHsu CPChen YCChepyala SRLu CYfalseNoise propagation with interlinked feed-forward pathways.Functionally similar pathways are often seen in biological systems, forming feed-forward controls. The robustness in network motifs such as feed-forward loops (FFLs) has been reported previously. In this work, we studied noise propagation in a development network that has multiple interlinked FFLs. A FFL has the potential of asymmetric noise-filtering (i.e., it works at either the "ON" or the "OFF" state in the target gene). With multiple, interlinked FFLs, we show that the propagated noises are largely filtered regardless of the states in the input genes. The noise-filtering property of an interlinked FFL can be largely derived from that of the individual FFLs, and with interlinked FFLs, it is possible to filter noises in both "ON" and "OFF" states in the output. We demonstrated the noise2016-01-01T00:00:00Z2016 Mar2025-04-25T17:36:46.478Z2019-03-27T03:10:44ZS-EPMC48148322702939710.1038/srep23607