618 research outputs found
Enhancement of the stability of genetic switches by overlapping upstream regulatory domains
We study genetic switches formed from pairs of mutually repressing operons.
The switch stability is characterised by a well defined lifetime which grows
sub-exponentially with the number of copies of the most-expressed transcription
factor, in the regime accessible by our numerical simulations. The stability
can be markedly enhanced by a suitable choice of overlap between the upstream
regulatory domains. Our results suggest that robustness against biochemical
noise can provide a selection pressure that drives operons, that regulate each
other, together in the course of evolution.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, RevTeX
Analysis of cool DO-type white dwarfs from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 10
We report on the identification of 22 new cool DO-type white dwarfs (WD)
detected in Data Release 10 (DR10) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS).
Among them, we found one more member of the so-called hot-wind DO WDs, which
show ultrahigh excitation absorption lines. Our non-LTE model atmosphere
analyses of these objects and two not previously analyzed hot-wind DO WDs,
revealed effective temperatures and gravities in the ranges Teff=45-80kK and
log g= 7.50-8.75. In eight of the spectra we found traces of C (0.001-0.01, by
mass). Two of these are the coolest DO WDs ever discovered that still show a
considerable amount of C in their atmospheres. This is in strong contradiction
with diffusion calculations, and probably, similar to what is proposed for DB
WDs, a weak mass-loss is present in DO WDs. One object is the most massive DO
WD discovered so far with a mass of 1.07 M_sun if it is an ONe-WD or 1.09 M_sun
if it is a CO-WD. We furthermore present the mass distribution of all known hot
non-DA (pre-) WDs and derive the hot DA to non-DA ratio for the SDSS DR7
spectroscopic sample. The mass distribution of DO WDs beyond the wind limit
strongly deviates from the mass distribution of the objects before the wind
limit. We address this phenomenon by applying different evolutionary input
channels. We argue that the DO WD channel may be fed by about 13% by
post-extreme-horizontal branch stars and that PG1159 stars and O(He) stars may
contribute in a similar extent to the non-DA WD channel.Comment: 13 pages, accepted for publication in A&
Sampling rare switching events in biochemical networks
Bistable biochemical switches are ubiquitous in gene regulatory networks and
signal transduction pathways. Their switching dynamics, however, are difficult
to study directly in experiments or conventional computer simulations, because
switching events are rapid, yet infrequent. We present a simulation technique
that makes it possible to predict the rate and mechanism of flipping of
biochemical switches. The method uses a series of interfaces in phase space
between the two stable steady states of the switch to generate transition
trajectories in a ratchet-like manner. We demonstrate its use by calculating
the spontaneous flipping rate of a symmetric model of a genetic switch
consisting of two mutually repressing genes. The rate constant can be obtained
orders of magnitude more efficiently than using brute-force simulations. For
this model switch, we show that the switching mechanism, and consequently the
switching rate, depends crucially on whether the binding of one regulatory
protein to the DNA excludes the binding of the other one. Our technique could
also be used to study rare events and non-equilibrium processes in soft
condensed matter systems.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, last page contains supplementary informatio
Stochastic model of transcription factor-regulated gene expression
We consider a stochastic model of transcription factor (TF)-regulated gene
expression. The model describes two genes: Gene A and Gene B which synthesize
the TFs and the target gene proteins respectively. We show through analytic
calculations that the TF fluctuations have a significant effect on the
distribution of the target gene protein levels when the mean TF level falls in
the highest sensitive region of the dose-response curve. We further study the
effect of reducing the copy number of Gene A from two to one. The enhanced TF
fluctuations yield results different from those in the deterministic case. The
probability that the target gene protein level exceeds a threshold value is
calculated with a knowledge of the probability density functions associated
with the TF and target gene protein levels. Numerical simulation results for a
more detailed stochastic model are shown to be in agreement with those obtained
through analytic calculations. The relevance of these results in the context of
the genetic disorder haploinsufficiency is pointed out. Some experimental
observations on the haploinsufficiency of the tumour suppressor gene, Nkx3.1,
are explained with the help of the stochastic model of TF-regulated gene
expression.Comment: 17 pages, 11 figures. Accepted for publication in Physical Biolog
Correlation of internal representations in feed-forward neural networks
Feed-forward multilayer neural networks implementing random input-output
mappings develop characteristic correlations between the activity of their
hidden nodes which are important for the understanding of the storage and
generalization performance of the network. It is shown how these correlations
can be calculated from the joint probability distribution of the aligning
fields at the hidden units for arbitrary decoder function between hidden layer
and output. Explicit results are given for the parity-, and-, and
committee-machines with arbitrary number of hidden nodes near saturation.Comment: 6 pages, latex, 1 figur
Noise Characteristics of Feed Forward Loops
A prominent feature of gene transcription regulatory networks is the presence
in large numbers of motifs, i.e, patterns of interconnection, in the networks.
One such motif is the feed forward loop (FFL) consisting of three genes X, Y
and Z. The protein product of x of X controls the synthesis of protein product
y of Y. Proteins x and y jointly regulate the synthesis of z proteins from the
gene Z. The FFLs, depending on the nature of the regulating interactions, can
be of eight different types which can again be classified into two categories:
coherent and incoherent. In this paper, we study the noise characteristics of
FFLs using the Langevin formalism and the Monte Carlo simulation technique
based on the Gillespie algorithm. We calculate the variances around the mean
protein levels in the steady states of the FFLs and find that, in the case of
coherent FFLs, the most abundant FFL, namely, the Type-1 coherent FFL, is the
least noisy. This is however not so in the case of incoherent FFLs. The results
suggest possible relationships between noise, functionality and abundance.Comment: 17 page
Evidence from K2 for rapid rotation in the descendant of an intermediate-mass star
Using patterns in the oscillation frequencies of a white dwarf observed by
K2, we have measured the fastest rotation rate, 1.13(02) hr, of any isolated
pulsating white dwarf known to date. Balmer-line fits to follow-up spectroscopy
from the SOAR telescope show that the star (SDSSJ0837+1856, EPIC 211914185) is
a 13,590(340) K, 0.87(03) solar-mass white dwarf. This is the highest mass
measured for any pulsating white dwarf with known rotation, suggesting a
possible link between high mass and fast rotation. If it is the product of
single-star evolution, its progenitor was a roughly 4.0 solar-mass
main-sequence B star; we know very little about the angular momentum evolution
of such intermediate-mass stars. We explore the possibility that this rapidly
rotating white dwarf is the byproduct of a binary merger, which we conclude is
unlikely given the pulsation periods observed.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure, 1 table; accepted for publication in The
Astrophysical Journal Letter
An asteroseismic test of diffusion theory in white dwarfs
The helium-atmosphere (DB) white dwarfs are commonly thought to be the
descendants of the hotter PG1159 stars, which initially have uniform He/C/O
atmospheres. In this evolutionary scenario, diffusion builds a pure He surface
layer which gradually thickens as the star cools. In the temperature range of
the pulsating DB white dwarfs (T_eff ~ 25,000 K) this transformation is still
taking place, allowing asteroseismic tests of the theory. We have obtained
dual-site observations of the pulsating DB star CBS114, to complement existing
observations of the slightly cooler star GD358. We recover the 7 independent
pulsation modes that were previously known, and we discover 4 new ones to
provide additional constraints on the models. We perform objective global
fitting of our updated double-layered envelope models to both sets of
observations, leading to determinations of the envelope masses and pure He
surface layers that qualitatively agree with the expectations of diffusion
theory. These results provide new asteroseismic evidence supporting one of the
central assumptions of spectral evolution theory, linking the DB white dwarfs
to PG1159 stars.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in A&
Evolution on a smooth landscape
We study in detail a recently proposed simple discrete model for evolution on
smooth landscapes. An asymptotic solution of this model for long times is
constructed. We find that the dynamics of the population are governed by
correlation functions that although being formally down by powers of (the
population size) nonetheless control the evolution process after a very short
transient. The long-time behavior can be found analytically since only one of
these higher-order correlators (the two-point function) is relevant. We compare
and contrast the exact findings derived herein with a previously proposed
phenomenological treatment employing mean field theory supplemented with a
cutoff at small population density. Finally, we relate our results to the
recently studied case of mutation on a totally flat landscape.Comment: Revtex, 15 pages, + 4 embedded PS figure
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