Analyzing efficiency of biological switches

摘要: The cell cycle transition between interphase and Mitosis (G2/M) is a highly controlled step. The core of the switch (CC) are two positive feedback loops, where a kinase, CDK, activates its activator (cdc25), and inhibits its inhibitor (wee1) 1. This core allows the irreversible transition, but it is not fully efficient in terms of speed and reaching the maxima. Therefore, other molecules are vital, like phosphatase PP1/PP2A and kinase GWL1 (GWL). Although the GWL system is an efficient switch (fast, robust and reliable), it has been shown these properties can be achieved by a simple system, the Approximate Majority algorithm (AM) 1, 2.