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Cooperative Binding of Transcription Regulators

Cooperative Binding of Transcription Regulators

Transcriptional regulators bind to specific cis-regulatory sequences in the DNA to regulate gene transcription. These cis-regulatory sequences are very short, usually less than ten nucleotide pairs in length. The short length means that there is a high probability of the exact same sequence randomly occurring throughout the genome. Since regulators can also bind to groups of similar sequences, this further increases the chances of random binding. Transcriptional regulators form...

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Updated: Dec 26, 2025

An Ecdysone Receptor-based Singular Gene Switch for Deliberate Expression of Transgene with Robustness, Reversibility, and Negligible Leakiness

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Molecular-memory-driven phenotypic switching in a genetic toggle switch without cooperative binding.

Baohua Qiu¹, Tianshou Zhou^1,2, Jiajun Zhang^1,2

¹School of Mathematics, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510275, People's Republic of China.

Physical Review. E

|March 15, 2020

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Molecular memory in gene networks can create distinct cell states (bimodality), offering a new explanation for cellular decision-making beyond traditional models. This finding is crucial for understanding cell development.

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Area of Science:

Systems Biology
Molecular Biology
Genetics

Background:

Cellular decision-making relies on complex intracellular processes.
Gene regulation often involves molecular memory, where past events influence future states.
Previous models for phenotypic switching focused on ultrasensitivity or cooperative binding.

Purpose of the Study:

To propose a generalized genetic toggle switch model incorporating molecular memory.
To investigate the impact of molecular memory on gene expression dynamics.
To explore alternative mechanisms for phenotypic switching driven by molecular memory.

Main Methods:

Development of a generalized genetic toggle switch model.
Application of generalized chemical master equation theory to analyze memory effects.
Mathematical modeling to study protein distribution in gene regulatory networks.

Main Results:

Molecular memory can induce bimodality in gene expression, even when the memoryless system is unimodal.
This suggests molecular memory as a driver for phenotypic switching.
Unbalanced molecular memory can lead to asymmetric bimodality without altering peak positions.

Conclusions:

Molecular memory provides a novel mechanism for phenotypic switching and cellular decision-making.
Findings offer insights into cell fate determination in biological growth and development.
The study highlights the significant role of molecular memory in gene regulatory networks.