Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2008 Mar 25;18(6):R244-5.
doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2008.02.035.

Feedback regulation of opposing enzymes generates robust, all-or-none bistable responses

James E Ferrell Jr

Feedback regulation of opposing enzymes generates robust, all-or-none bistable responses

James E Ferrell Jr. Curr Biol. .
No abstract available

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Schematic view of the reciprocal positive and double-negative feedback loops in the CDK1–Cdc25–Wee1 system.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Feedback regulation of opposing enzymes yields robust bistable responses. (A) No feedback loops. One enzyme activates A; a second inactivates it. The activation rate curve (blue) and the inactivation rate curve (red) intersect at a single point, which represents the stable steady state (SSS) of the system. (B) One feedback loop. We assume that A positively feeds back on its activator. The inactivation rate curve is unchanged (red), but now the activation rate rises and then falls as the activity of A increases (blue). If the rate constants and concentrations of the activator and inactivator are appropriately matched, the curves can intersect at three points. Two correspond to stable steady states (SSS) and one to an unstable steady state (USS). The dashed red lines depict the highest and lowest rate constants for the inactivation reaction compatible with bistability. (C) Two feedback loops. We assume that A activates its activator (blue curve) in a positive feedback loop, and inactivates its inactivator (red curve) in a negative feedback loop. The result is rate curves that are roughly mirror images of each other, and either curve can be stretched to a huge extent without eliminating the bistability. The equations upon which these plots are based are discussed qualitatively in the main text and are derived in the Supplemental Data, published with this article online.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Novick A, Wiener M. Enzyme induction as an all-or-none phenomenon. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 1957;43:553–566. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Monod J, Jacob F. General conclusions: teleonomic mechanisms in cellular metabolism, growth, and differentiation. Cold Spring Harbor Symp. Quant. Biol. 1961;26:389–401. - PubMed
    1. Griffith JS. Mathematics of cellular control processes. II. Positive feedback to one gene. J. Theor. Biol. 1968;20:209–216. - PubMed
    1. Ferrell JE. Self-perpetuating states in signal transduction: positive feedback, doublenegative feedback and bistability. Curr. Opin. Cell Biol. 2002;14:140–148. - PubMed
    1. Morgan DO. The Cell Cycle: Principles of Control. New Science Press, Ltd; 2006.

Publication types

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources