Multistability and Clustering in a Population of Synthetic Genetic Oscillators via Phase-Repulsive Cell-to-Cell Communication

Ekkehard Ullner, Alexei Zaikin, Evgenii I. Volkov, and Jordi García-Ojalvo
Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 148103 – Published 2 October 2007

Abstract

We show that phase-repulsive coupling eliminates oscillations in a population of synthetic genetic clocks. For this, we propose an experimentally feasible synthetic genetic network that contains phase repulsively coupled repressilators with broken temporal symmetry. As the coupling strength increases, silencing of oscillations is found to occur via the appearance of an inhomogeneous limit cycle, followed by oscillation death. Two types of oscillation death are observed: For lower couplings, the cells cluster in one of two stationary states of protein expression; for larger couplings, all cells end up in a single (stationary) cellular state. Several multistable regimes are observed along this route to oscillation death.

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  • Received 16 April 2007

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.99.148103

©2007 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Ekkehard Ullner1, Alexei Zaikin2, Evgenii I. Volkov3, and Jordi García-Ojalvo1

  • 1Departament de Física i Enginyeria Nuclear, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Colom 11, E-08222 Terrassa, Spain
  • 2Department of Mathematics, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester CO4 3SQ, United Kingdom
  • 3Department of Theoretical Physics, Lebedev Physical Institute, Leninskii 53, Moscow, Russia

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Issue

Vol. 99, Iss. 14 — 5 October 2007

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