Abstract
Oscillations are crucial to the sustenance of living organisms, across a wide variety of biological processes. In eukaryotes, oscillatory dynamics are thought to arise from interactions at the protein and RNA levels; however, the role of non-coding RNA in regulating these dynamics remains understudied. In this work, using a mathematical model, we show how non-coding RNA acting as miRNA sponges in a conserved miRNA - transcription factor feedback motif, can give rise to oscillatory behaviour. Control of these non-coding RNA can dynamically create oscillations or stability, and we show how this behaviour predisposes to oscillations in the stochastic limit. These results point towards novel hypotheses for the roles of different species of miRNA sponges, and help to provide a paradigm for functional differences between the many distinct RNA species thought to act as miRNA sponges in nature.
