Dynamics of actively regulated gene networks (Q633753)

The article deals with models of gene regulatory networks in which genes are taken to act directly on each other. These actions are modeled by steep sigmoidal response functions (Hill functions) that switch between two values at a certain threshold. The network's dynamics become complicated only in domains of fast changes in the dynamics, that is when at least one gene is near to one of its thresholds. It is these regions, for which the paper applies a singular perturbation approach taking as small parameter the inverse of the steepness of the response functions. In particular, this analysis determines the sequence of domains through which the system passes. The results may prove useful to the implementation of an automatic analyzer for gene regulatory networks.