Bifurcations in the interplay of messenger RNA, protein and nonprotein coding RNA

Abstract

The interplay of messenger RNA (mRNA), protein, produced via translation of this RNA, and nonprotein coding RNA (ncRNA) may include regulation of the ncRNA production by protein and (i) ncRNA–protein association resulting in suppression of the protein regulatory activity or (ii) ncRNA–mRNA association resulting in degradation of the miRNA–mRNA complex. The kinetic models describing these two scenarios are found to predict bistability provided that protein suppresses the ncRNA formation.

Non-coding RNAs and a layered architecture of genetic networks

“…The mechanism of the bistability found here is novel com-pared to those discussed earlier [37][38][39][40]. In particular, the key factor behind bistability in the earlier models is either negative protein-mediated regulation of the ncRNA synthesis [37] or positive self-regulation of the mRNA synthesis [40].…”

“…In particular, the key factor behind bistability in the earlier models is either negative protein-mediated regulation of the ncRNA synthesis [37] or positive self-regulation of the mRNA synthesis [40]. The present model does not contain such ingredients.…”

“…[34][35][36] and references therein) or on the simplest schemes taking one protein-mediated feedback into account and predicting bistability [37][38][39][40] or oscillations [41][42][43]. With these studies, our understanding of the effect of ncRNAs on complex genetic networks remains, however, limited.…”

“…In analogy with Refs. [34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43], we use mean-field kinetic equations. Alternatively, the complex genetic mRNA-protein networks are often described by employing the Boolean rules [17,20].…”

Non-coding RNAs and complex distributed genetic networks

“…Theoretical studies of such kinetics are focused primarily on the simplest situations without protein-mediated regulation [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32] or with a single protein-mediated feedback [33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42]. There are also first attempts to describe the kinetics of more complex genetic networks including ncRNAs [43][44][45][46].…”