Correlations and adaptation in enzymatic networks

16 Oct 2018, Warren Alpert Building 563, 2.30pm

Ruth Williams
Department of Mathematics
UC San Diego

Abstract

The contrast between stochasticity of biochemical networks and regularity of cellular behavior suggests that biological networks generate robust behavior from noisy constituents. Identifying the mechanisms that confer this ability on biological networks is essential to understanding cells. Here we use stochastic queueing models to investigate one potential mechanism. In living cells, enzymes perform the critical function of acting as catalysts to ensure that important reactions occur at rates fast enough to sustain life. We show how competition among different molecular species for the attention of a limited pool of adaptive shared enzymes can produce strong correlations between the different species.

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