Speaker
Description
Interactions between biological molecules are challenging to elucidate with current techniques. An orthogonal approach is to probe for 'response signatures' that identify specific circuit motifs. For example, bistability, hysteresis, or irreversibility are used to detect positive feedback loops. For adapting systems, such signatures are not known. Two circuit motifs generate adaptation: negative feedback loops (NFLs) and incoherent feed-forward loops (IFFLs). On the basis of computational testing and mathematical proofs, we propose differential signatures: in response to oscillatory stimulation, NFLs but not IFFLs show refractory–period stabilization or period skipping. We applied this approach to the cell cycle control system in yeast and the Caenorhabditis elegans AWA neurons and identified the key network topologies in each network.
