Most probable transition pathways and maximal likely trajectories in a genetic regulatory system

Abstract

We study the most probable transition pathways and maximal likely trajectories in a genetic regulation model of the transcription factor activator’s concentration evolution, with Gaussian noise and non-Gaussian stable Lévy noise in the synthesis reaction rate taking into account, respectively. We compute the most probable transition pathways by the Onsager–Machlup least action principle, and calculate the maximal likely trajectories by spatially maximizing the probability density of the system path, i.e., the solution of the associated nonlocal Fokker–Planck equation. We have observed the rare most probable transition pathways in the case of Gaussian noise, for certain noise intensity, evolution time scale and system parameters. We have especially studied the maximal likely trajectories starting at the low concentration metastable state, and examined whether they evolve to or near the high concentration metastable state (i.e., the likely transcription regime) for certain parameters, in order to gain insights into the transcription processes and the tipping time for the transcription likely to occur. This enables us: (i) to visualize the progress of concentration evolution (i.e., observe whether the system enters the transcription regime within a given time period); (ii) to predict or avoid certain transcriptions via selecting specific noise parameters in particular regions in the parameter space. Moreover, we have found some peculiar or counter-intuitive phenomena in this gene model system, including: (a) A smaller noise intensity may trigger the transcription process, while a larger noise intensity cannot, under the same asymmetric Lévy noise. This phenomenon does not occur in the case of symmetric Lévy noise; (b) The symmetric Lévy motion always induces transition to high concentration, but certain asymmetric Lévy motions do not trigger the switch to transcription.These findings provide insights for further experimental research, in order to achieve or to avoid specific gene transcriptions, with possible relevance for medical advances.