Abstract
BackgroundGene regulation networks are made of recurring regulatory patterns, called network motifs. One of the most common network motifs is negative auto-regulation, in which a transcription factor represses its own production. Negative auto-regulation has several potential functions: it can shorten the response time (time to reach halfway to steady-state), stabilize expression against noise, and linearize the gene's input-output response curve. This latter function of negative auto-regulation, which increases the range of input signals over which downstream genes respond, has been studied by theory and synthetic gene circuits. Here we ask whether negative auto-regulation preserves this function also in the context of a natural system, where it is embedded within many additional interactions. To address this, we studied the negative auto-regulation motif in the arabinose utilization system of Escherichia coli, in which negative auto-regulation is part of a complex regulatory network.ResultsWe find that when negative auto-regulation is disrupted by placing the regulator araC under constitutive expression, the input dynamic range of the arabinose system is reduced by 10-fold. The apparent Hill coefficient of the induction curve changes from about n = 1 with negative auto-regulation, to about n = 2 when it is disrupted. We present a mathematical model that describes how negative auto-regulation can increase input dynamic-range, by coupling the transcription factor protein level to the input signal.ConclusionsHere we demonstrate that the negative auto-regulation motif in the native arabinose system of Escherichia coli increases the range of arabinose signals over which the system can respond. In this way, negative auto-regulation may help to increase the input dynamic-range while maintaining the specificity of cooperative regulatory systems. This function may contribute to explaining the common occurrence of negative auto-regulation in biological systems.
Highlights
Gene regulation networks are made of recurring regulatory patterns, called network motifs
Because protein levels can vary from cell to cell by tens of percents [15,16,17], such a noise buffering mechanism is useful in cases where precision in transcription factor (TF) levels is needed [18]
We find, using high-temporal resolution measurement of promoter activity, that disrupting negative auto-regulation (NAR) in the arabinose system increases the steepness of the sigmoidal response curve
Summary
Gene regulation networks are made of recurring regulatory patterns, called network motifs. Negative auto-regulation has several potential functions: it can shorten the response time (time to reach halfway to steady-state), stabilize expression against noise, and linearize the gene’s input-output response curve. This latter function of negative auto-regulation, which increases the range of input signals over which downstream genes respond, has been studied by theory and synthetic gene circuits. Transcription regulation networks are largely made up of recurring regulatory patterns called network motifs [1,2,3,4]. Low frequency noise in TF production rates tends to be buffered by NAR because negative feedback reduces TF levels if they are too high, and increases them if they are too low, making TF levels more uniform across cells
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