title: The yeast cell-cycle network is robustly designed.
abstract: The interactions between proteins, DNA, and RNA in living cells constitute molecular networks that govern various cellular functions. To investigate the global dynamical properties and stabilities of such networks, we studied the cell-cycle regulatory network of the budding yeast. With the use of a simple dynamical model, it was demonstrated that the cell-cycle network is extremely stable and robust for its function. The biological stationary state, the G1 state, is a global attractor of the dynamics. The biological pathway, the cell-cycle sequence of protein states, is a globally attracting trajectory of the dynamics. These properties are largely preserved with respect to small perturbations to the network. These results suggest that cellular regulatory networks are robustly designed for their functions.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Theoretical Biology and Department of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
authors.forename: Fangting
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Long
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: Qi
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Ouyang
authors.forename: Chao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Tang
mesh_terms: D002453:Cell Cycle; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000737:chemistry*