Construction of genetic oscillators with interlocked feedback networks

Sustained oscillations in extended genetic oscillatory systems

Various dynamic cellular behaviors have been successfully modeled in terms of elementary circuitries showing particular characteristics such as negative feedback loops for sustained oscillations. Given, however, the increasing evidences indicating that cellular components do not function in isolation but form a complex interwoven network, it is still unclear to what extent the conclusions drawn from the elementary circuit analogy hold for systems that are highly interacting with surrounding environments. In this article, we consider a specific example of genetic oscillator systems, the so-called repressilator, as a starting point toward a systematic investigation into the dynamic consequences of the extension through interlocking of elementary biological circuits. From in silico analyses with both continuous and Boolean dynamics approaches to the four-node extension of the repressilator, we found that 1), the capability of sustained oscillation depends on the topology of extended systems; and 2), the stability of oscillation under the extension also depends on the coupling topology. We then deduce two empirical rules favoring the sustained oscillations, termed the coherent coupling and the homogeneous regulation. These simple rules will help us prioritize candidate patterns of network wiring, guiding both the experimental investigations for further physiological verification and the synthetic designs for bioengineering.

Detection of cellular rhythms and global stability within interlocked feedback systems

In this paper, we show how to detect cellular rhythm and its global stability by extending the techniques from the recently developed theory of monotone systems. We establish theoretical results for globally asymptotic stability with consideration of delay by a discrete map. The relationship between positive, negative elements and delay in a general class of interlocked feedback networks can be understood in a system level. Moreover, the correspondence of attractors between a network and its reduced map is obtained and can be used to detect cellular rhythm, and further control the dynamics of the network. We show that global cellular rhythms can always be obtained, thereby enhancing robustness against perturbations of initial conditions and avoiding chaotic oscillations or complete abolishment of oscillations. In this paper, we focus on analyzing the circadian oscillator in Drosophila as an example to detect the occurrence of cellular rhythm and its global stability.