Stochastic simulation of delay-induced circadian rhythms in Drosophila

Circadian rhythms are ubiquitous in all eukaryotes and some prokaryotes. Several computational models with or without time delays have been developed for circadian rhythms. Exact stochastic simulations have been carried out for several models without time delays, but no exact stochastic simulation has been done for models with delays. In this paper, we proposed a detailed and a reduced stochastic model with delays for circadian rhythms in Drosophila based on two deterministic models of Smolen et al. and employed exact stochastic simulation to simulate circadian oscillations. Our simulations showed that both models can produce sustained oscillations and that the oscillation is robust to noise in the sense that there is very little variability in oscillation period although there are significant random fluctuations in oscillation peaks. Moreover, although average time delays are essential to simulation of oscillation, random changes in time delays within certain range around fixed average time delay cause little variability in the oscillation period. Our simulation results also showed that both models are robust to parameter variations and that oscillation can be entrained by light/dark circles. Our simulations further demonstrated that within a reasonable range around the experimental result, the rates that dclock and per promoters switch back and forth between activated and repressed sites have little impact on oscillation period.