Michaelis–Menten networks are structurally stable

Abstract

We consider a class of biological networks where the nodes are associated with first-order linear dynamics and their interactions, which can be either activating or inhibitory, are modelled by nonlinear Michaelis–Menten functions (i.e., Hill functions with unitary Hill coefficient), possibly in the presence of external constant inputs. We show that all the systems belonging to this class admit at most one strictly positive equilibrium, which is stable; this property is structural, i.e., it holds for any possible choice of the parameter values, and topology-independent, i.e., it holds for any possible topology of the interaction network. When the network is strongly connected, the strictly positive equilibrium is the only equilibrium of the system if and only if the network includes either at least one inhibiting function, or a strictly positive external input (otherwise, the zero vector is an equilibrium). The proposed stability results hold also for more general classes of interaction functions, and even in the presence of arbitrary delays in the interactions.