Tweaking biological switches through a better understanding of bistability behavior.
Many biological events are binary. The switch between mutually exclusive OFF to ON state in response to a stimulus is frequently mediated by a control circuit with a positive and/or a negative feedback. Such a system typically exhibits hysteresis with its switching ON and OFF stimulus levels dependent on the current state of the system. The system can be shown to be bistable both experimentally and mathematically. Work to synthesize such switches by combining natural or engineered components has begun to illustrate the potential of such control circuits in many areas of applications.
Chatterjee
Anushree
A
Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Minnesota, 421 Washington Avenue SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455-0132, USA.
Kaznessis
Yiannis N
YN
Hu
Wei-Shou
WS
D001683:Biological Clocks / Q000502:physiology*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D039301:Computers, Molecular; D005246:Feedback / Q000502:physiology; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000502:physiology*; D005818:Genetic Engineering / Q000379:methods*; D055442:Metabolome / Q000502:physiology*; D008954:Models, Biological; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000502:physiology*