eprintid: 3436
rev_number: 8
eprint_status: archive
userid: 69
dir: disk0/00/00/34/36
datestamp: 2016-04-13 08:31:40
lastmod: 2016-04-13 08:31:40
status_changed: 2016-04-13 08:31:40
type: article
metadata_visibility: show
creators_name: Cardelli, Luca
creators_name: Csikász-Nagy, Attila
creators_name: Dalchau, Neil
creators_name: Tribastone, Mirco
creators_name: Tschaikowski, Max
creators_id: 
creators_id: 
creators_id: 
creators_id: mirco.tribastone@imtlucca.it
creators_id: max.tschaikowski@imtlucca.it
title: Noise Reduction in Complex Biological Switches
ispublished: pub
subjects: QA75
divisions: CSA
full_text_status: public
keywords: Biochemical networks; Cellular noise; Stochastic modelling
abstract: Cells operate in noisy molecular environments via complex regulatory networks. It is possible to understand how molecular counts are related to noise in specific networks, but it is not generally clear how noise relates to network complexity, because different levels of complexity also imply different overall number of molecules. For a fixed function, does increased network complexity reduce noise, beyond the mere increase of overall molecular counts? If so, complexity could provide an advantage counteracting the costs involved in maintaining larger networks. For that purpose, we investigate how noise affects multistable systems, where a small amount of noise could lead to very different outcomes; thus we turn to biochemical switches. Our method for comparing networks of different structure and complexity is to place them in conditions where they produce exactly the same deterministic function. We are then in a good position to compare their noise characteristics relatively to their identical deterministic traces. We show that more complex networks are better at coping with both intrinsic and extrinsic noise. Intrinsic noise tends to decrease with complexity, and extrinsic noise tends to have less impact. Our findings suggest a new role for increased complexity in biological networks, at parity of function.
date: 2016
date_type: published
publication: Scientific Reports
number: 20214
publisher: Nature Publishing Group
pagerange: 1-12
id_number: 10.1038/srep20214
refereed: TRUE
issn: 2045-2322
official_url: http://www.nature.com/articles/srep20214
citation:   Cardelli, Luca and Csikász-Nagy, Attila and Dalchau, Neil and Tribastone, Mirco and Tschaikowski, Max  Noise Reduction in Complex Biological Switches.  Scientific Reports (20214).  pp. 1-12.  ISSN 2045-2322      (2016)  
document_url: http://eprints.imtlucca.it/3436/1/srep20214.pdf