STOCHASTIC TIME DELAYS IN REGULATORY NETWORKS AND MODEL REDUCTION

Abstract

Stochastic time delays and asynchronism in regulatory networks is an ubiquitous phenomena in biology, in particular in regulatory networks. However, this phenomena is poorly understood. In particular, variable-stochastic time intervals in the realization of chemical reactions have a crucial effect in the dynamics of the system. I analyze the effect that different time delays in feedback loops can have in the transient behavior of a regulatory network. Using a simple toy model for a regulatory network with forcing I show that such time delays introduce an oscillatory behavior that can alternatively be explained if additional loops are defined. The results suggest that the introduction of time delays is a mechanism that is helpful to theoretically reduce the number of elements, in particular the number of feedback loops, in competing network models.