Welcome to the new version of CaltechAUTHORS. Login is currently restricted to library staff. If you notice any issues, please email coda@library.caltech.edu
Published July 2006 | Published
Journal Article Open

Module-Based Analysis of Robustness Tradeoffs in the Heat Shock Response System

Abstract

Biological systems have evolved complex regulatory mechanisms, even in situations where much simpler designs seem to be sufficient for generating nominal functionality. Using module-based analysis coupled with rigorous mathematical comparisons, we propose that in analogy to control engineering architectures, the complexity of cellular systems and the presence of hierarchical modular structures can be attributed to the necessity of achieving robustness. We employ the Escherichia coli heat shock response system, a strongly conserved cellular mechanism, as an example to explore the design principles of such modular architectures. In the heat shock response system, the sigma-factor σ32 is a central regulator that integrates multiple feedforward and feedback modules. Each of these modules provides a different type of robustness with its inherent tradeoffs in terms of transient response and efficiency. We demonstrate how the overall architecture of the system balances such tradeoffs. An extensive mathematical exploration nevertheless points to the existence of an array of alternative strategies for the existing heat shock response that could exhibit similar behavior. We therefore deduce that the evolutionary constraints facing the system might have steered its architecture toward one of many robustly functional solutions.

Additional Information

Copyright: © 2006 Kurata et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Received: September 29, 2005; Accepted: April 13, 2006; Published: July 28, 2006 HK, HES, HO, JCD, CAG, and MK conceived and designed the experiments. HK and RI performed the experiments. HK, HES, and CAG analyzed the data. HES, JCD, IG, CAG, and MK contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools. HK, HES, JCD, CAG, and MK wrote the paper. Competing interests. The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. This material is based upon work supported by National Science Foundation grant CCF-0326576, Institute of Collaborative Biotechnologies grant DAAD19-03-D-0004 from the US Army Research office, the Rice Genome Simulator Project of the National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, and the Sandler Family Supporting Foundation.

Attached Files

Published - KURploscompbio06.pdf

Files

KURploscompbio06.pdf
Files (1.2 MB)
Name Size Download all
md5:6744a395d919da1f63e5c00d57b3d8c8
1.2 MB Preview Download

Additional details

Created:
August 22, 2023
Modified:
October 16, 2023