title: The linear noise approximation for molecular fluctuations within cells.
abstract: We study the applicability of Van Kampen's linear noise approximation to the calculation of fluctuations in cells due to small number of molecules for simple genetic systems not previously considered. These systems include dimer formation and feedback. We explain why the linear noise approximation can be surprisingly effective, but also illustrate how it fails in a simple example when a protein probability distribution is not purely Gaussian.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, The Ohio State University, 174 W 18th Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210-1106, USA. hayot@mps.ohio-state.edu
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Hayot
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Jayaprakash
mesh_terms: D002477:Cells; D019281:Dimerization; D008958:Models, Molecular; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D011506:Proteins