On a model of online analog computation in the cell with absolute functional robustness: Algebraic characterization, function compiler and error control

Abstract

The Turing completeness of continuous Chemical Reaction Networks (CRNs) states that any computable real function can be computed by a continuous CRN on a finite set of molecular species, possibly restricted to elementary reactions, i.e. with at most two reactants and mass action law kinetics. In this paper, we introduce a more stringent notion of robust online analog computation, called Absolute Functional Robustness (AFR), for the CRNs that stabilize the concentration values of some output species to the result of one function of the input species concentrations, while allowing arbitrary perturbations for intermediate and output species throughout the attraction basin. We prove that the set of real functions stabilized by a CRN with mass action law kinetics is precisely the set of real algebraic functions. Based on this result, we present a compiler which takes as input any algebraic function (defined by one polynomial and one point for selecting one branch of the algebraic curve defined by the polynomial) and generates an abstract CRN to stabilize it. Furthermore, we provide error bounds to estimate and control the error of an unperturbed system, under the assumption that the environment inputs are driven by k-Lipschitz functions.