Synchronization of genetic oscillators

Abstract

Synchronization of genetic or cellular oscillators is a central topic in understanding the rhythmicity of living organisms at both molecular and cellular levels. Here, we show how a collective rhythm across a population of genetic oscillators through synchronization-induced intercellular communication is achieved, and how an ensemble of independent genetic oscillators is synchronized by a common noisy signaling molecule. Our main purpose is to elucidate various synchronization mechanisms from the viewpoint of dynamics, by investigating the effects of various biologically plausible couplings, several kinds of noise, and external stimuli. To have a comprehensive understanding on the synchronization of genetic oscillators, we consider three classes of genetic oscillators: smooth oscillators (exhibiting sine-like oscillations), relaxation oscillators (displaying jump dynamics), and stochastic oscillators (noise-induced oscillation). For every class, we further study two cases: with intercellular communication (including phase-attractive and repulsive coupling) and without communication between cells. We find that an ensemble of smooth oscillators has different synchronization phenomena from those in the case of relaxation oscillators, where noise plays a different but key role in synchronization. To show differences in synchronization between them, we make comparisons in many aspects. We also show that a population of genetic stochastic oscillators have their own synchronization mechanisms. In addition, we present interesting phenomena, e.g., for relaxation-type stochastic oscillators coupled to a quorum-sensing mechanism, different noise intensities can induce different periodic motions (i.e., inhomogeneous limit cycles).