Stochastic Modelling of a Biological Clock

Informal Applied Seminar, 31st March, Hitesh Mistry

Abstract:

Recent experimental work suggests that only a small proportion of cell-to-cell variation in gene expression is caused by random fluctuations at the transcriptional level (that is, by fluctuations in the manufacture of messenger RNA (mRNA) from the cells' DNA). Rather, Colman-Lerner et. al. suggest that variations arise mainly from differences between individual cell's capacity to transmit signals through a signal transduction pathway and to produce proteins from mRNA. To date, deterministic systems of ODE's have been used to model many gene networks, the circadian clock in Arabidopsis Thaliana being one. We report on an extension to this model, which includes stochastic terms that lead to variability of the sort described by Colman-Lerner.