Homogeneous time constants promote oscillations in negative feedback loops

Journal article (2018)

Authors

Franco Blanchini Università degli Studi di Udine
Christian Cuba Samaniego University of California
Elisa Franco University of California
G. Giordano Team Tamas Keviczky - Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering
Research Group
Team Tamas Keviczky (Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering) (TU Delft)
Oscillations Feedback Synthetic biology Delays Biomolecular oscillators Time constants
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Published Date

2018

Language

English

Reuse Rights

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Faculty

Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering

Department

Delft Center for Systems and Control

Research Group

Team Tamas Keviczky

Abstract

Biological oscillators are present in nearly all self-regulating systems, from individual cells to entire organisms. In any oscillator structure, a negative feedback loop is necessary, but not sufficient to guarantee the emergence of periodic behaviors. The likelihood of oscillations can be improved by careful tuning of the system time constants and by increasing the loop gain, yet it is unclear whether there is any general relationship between optimal time constants and loop gain. This issue is particularly relevant in genetic oscillators resulting from a chain of different subsequent biochemical events, each with distinct (and uncertain) kinetics. Using two families of genetic oscillators as model examples, we show that the loop gain required for oscillations is minimum when all elements in the loop have the same time constant. On the contrary, we show that homeostasis is ensured if a single element is considerably slower than the others.