Chaos and robustness in a single family of genetic oscillatory networks

PLoS One. 2014 Mar 25;9(3):e90666. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0090666. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

Genetic oscillatory networks can be mathematically modeled with delay differential equations (DDEs). Interpreting genetic networks with DDEs gives a more intuitive understanding from a biological standpoint. However, it presents a problem mathematically, for DDEs are by construction infinitely-dimensional and thus cannot be analyzed using methods common for systems of ordinary differential equations (ODEs). In our study, we address this problem by developing a method for reducing infinitely-dimensional DDEs to two- and three-dimensional systems of ODEs. We find that the three-dimensional reductions provide qualitative improvements over the two-dimensional reductions. We find that the reducibility of a DDE corresponds to its robustness. For non-robust DDEs that exhibit high-dimensional dynamics, we calculate analytic dimension lines to predict the dependence of the DDEs' correlation dimension on parameters. From these lines, we deduce that the correlation dimension of non-robust DDEs grows linearly with the delay. On the other hand, for robust DDEs, we find that the period of oscillation grows linearly with delay. We find that DDEs with exclusively negative feedback are robust, whereas DDEs with feedback that changes its sign are not robust. We find that non-saturable degradation damps oscillations and narrows the range of parameter values for which oscillations exist. Finally, we deduce that natural genetic oscillators with highly-regular periods likely have solely negative feedback.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms*
  • Computer Simulation
  • Gene Expression Regulation*
  • Gene Regulatory Networks*
  • Humans
  • Models, Theoretical*
  • Systems Biology*

Grants and funding

AK acknowledges financial support from the Indiana University Research Support Funds. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.