title: Noise-induced metastability in biochemical networks.
abstract: Intracellular biochemical reactions exhibit a rich dynamical phenomenology which cannot be explained within the framework of mean-field rate equations and additive noise. Here, we show that the presence of metastable states and radically different time scales are general features of a broad class of autocatalytic reaction networks, and that this fact may be exploited to gain analytical results. The latter point is demonstrated by a treatment of the paradigmatic Togashi-Kaneko reaction, which has resisted theoretical analysis for the last decade.
authors.affiliation: Theoretical Physics Division, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Tommaso
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Biancalani
authors.forename: Tim
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Rogers
authors.forename: Alan J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: McKane
mesh_terms: D001704:Biopolymers / Q000378:metabolism*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D008954:Models, Biological; D015233:Models, Statistical; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D001704:Biopolymers