Stability analysis of an artificial biomolecular oscillator with non-cooperative regulatory interactions

J Biol Dyn. 2017 Dec;11(1):102-120. doi: 10.1080/17513758.2016.1245790.

Abstract

Oscillators are essential to fuel autonomous behaviours in molecular systems. Artificial oscillators built with programmable biological molecules such as DNA and RNA are generally easy to build and tune, and can serve as timers for biological computation and regulation. We describe a new artificial nucleic acid biochemical reaction network, and we demonstrate its capacity to exhibit oscillatory solutions. This network can be built in vitro using nucleic acids and three bacteriophage enzymes, and has the potential to be implemented in cells. Numerical simulations suggest that oscillations occur in a realistic range of reaction rates and concentrations.

Keywords: 34A34; 34C15; 78A70; 92C40; Nonlinear systems; biochemistry; biological applications; molecular biology; nonlinear oscillations.

MeSH terms

  • Bacteriophages / enzymology
  • DNA-Directed RNA Polymerases / chemistry*
  • Models, Chemical*
  • Nucleic Acids / chemistry*
  • Oscillometry

Substances

  • Nucleic Acids
  • DNA-Directed RNA Polymerases