Gene Regulation, Interacting Oscillators and Circadian Rhythms

Roderick Edwards, University of Victoria

Abstract

Genes and their transcribed and translated products form interacting networks. In principle, these can be richly connected, and in fact, in an interacting system of only four or five genes it is already possible in theory to have very complex dynamical activity. In particular, it is possible for oscillatory transcriptional processes to interact, allowing many nontrivial behaviours. It is proposed that circadian rhythms could arise robustly from such an interaction, and that this mechanism for the generation of circadian oscillations is evolutionarily plausible. An abstracted model framework for studying complex dynamics in gene regulatory networks will be briefly outlined and a more detailed model of realistic chemical kinetics underlying circadian rhythms will be discussed.