System analysis of Phycomyces light-growth response in single and double night-blind mutants

The sum-of-sinusoids method of nonlinear system identification has been applied to the light-growth response of the Phycomyces sporangiophore. Experiments were performed on the Phycomyces tracking machine with the wild-type strain with single and double mutants affected in genes madA, madB, and madC. The sum-of-sinusoids test stimuli were applied to the logarithm of the light intensity. The log-mean intensity level was 10(-1) W m-2 and the wavelength was 477 nm. The system identification results are in the form of first- and second-order frequency kernels, which are related to temporal kernels that appear in the Wiener functional series. The first-order kernels agree well with those obtained previously by the white noise method. In particular, the madA madB and madB madC double mutants show very weak responses. With the superior precision of the sum-of-sinusoids methods, we have achieved sufficient resolution to measure and analyze their second-order kernels. The first- and second-order frequency kernels were interpreted by system analysis methods involving a nonlinear parametric model. In addition a nonparametric hypothesis concerning interactions of gene products was tested. Results from the interaction tests confirm the earlier conclusion that the madB and madC gene products interact. In addition, with the enhanced precision and with the extension to nonlinear analysis, we have found evidence of interaction of the madA gene product with the madB and madC gene products. Thus all three genes appear to have mutual interactions, presumably because of their close physical association in a photoreceptor complex.