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Updated: Jul 14, 2026

Studying Cell Cycle-regulated Gene Expression by Two Complementary Cell Synchronization Protocols
Published on: June 6, 2017
Irreversible cell-cycle transitions are due to systems-level feedback
Bela Novak1, John J Tyson, Bela Gyorffy
1Oxford Centre for Integrative Systems Biology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3QU, UK. bela.novak@bioch.ox.ac.uk
Abstract:
The irreversibility of cell-cycle transitions is commonly thought to derive from the irreversible degradation of certain regulatory proteins. We argue that irreversible transitions in the cell cycle (or in any other molecular control system) cannot be attributed to a single molecule or reaction, but that they derive from feedback signals in reaction networks. This systems-level view of irreversibility is supported by many experimental observations.
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