Listening to the noise: random fluctuations reveal gene network parameters

Journal Article · Thu Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 2009 · Science

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/msb.2009.75· OSTI ID:956361

Munsky, Brian ^[1]; Khammash, Mustafa ^[2]

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1. Los Alamos National Laboratory
2. UCSB

The cellular environment is abuzz with noise. The origin of this noise is attributed to the inherent random motion of reacting molecules that take part in gene expression and post expression interactions. In this noisy environment, clonal populations of cells exhibit cell-to-cell variability that frequently manifests as significant phenotypic differences within the cellular population. The stochastic fluctuations in cellular constituents induced by noise can be measured and their statistics quantified. We show that these random fluctuations carry within them valuable information about the underlying genetic network. Far from being a nuisance, the ever-present cellular noise acts as a rich source of excitation that, when processed through a gene network, carries its distinctive fingerprint that encodes a wealth of information about that network. We demonstrate that in some cases the analysis of these random fluctuations enables the full identification of network parameters, including those that may otherwise be difficult to measure. This establishes a potentially powerful approach for the identification of gene networks and offers a new window into the workings of these networks.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL)
• Sponsoring Organization: DOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC52-06NA25396
• OSTI ID: 956361
• Report Number(s): LA-UR-09-00608; LA-UR-09-608
• Journal Information: Science, Journal Name: Science; ISSN 0193-4511; ISSN SCEHDK
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
EXCITATION
FLUCTUATIONS
GENES
GENETICS
NOISE
ORIGIN
STATISTICS