Bistability: requirements on cell-volume, protein diffusion, and thermodynamics.

ABSTRACT: Bistability is considered wide-spread among bacteria and eukaryotic cells, useful, e.g., for enzyme induction, bet hedging, and epigenetic switching. However, this phenomenon has mostly been described with deterministic dynamic or well-mixed stochastic models. Here, we map known biological bistable systems onto the well-characterized biochemical Schlögl model, using analytical calculations and stochastic spatiotemporal simulations. In addition to network architecture and strong thermodynamic driving away from equilibrium, we show that bistability requires fine-tuning towards small cell volumes (or compartments) and fast protein diffusion (well mixing). Bistability is thus fragile and hence may be restricted to small bacteria and eukaryotic nuclei, with switching triggered by volume changes

SUBMITTER: Endres RG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4398428 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature