Calculating Biological Behaviors of Epigenetic States in Phage lambda Life Cycle

Abstract

Gene regulatory network of lambda phage is one the best studied model systems in molecular biology. More 50 years of experimental study has provided a tremendous amount of data at all levels: physics, chemistry, DNA, protein, and function. However, its stability and robustness for both wild type and mutants has been a notorious theoretical/mathematical problem. In this paper we report our successful calculation on the properties of this gene regulatory network. We believe it is of its first kind. Our success is of course built upon numerous previous theoretical attempts, but following 3 features make our modeling uniqu: 1) A new modeling method particular suitable for stability and robustness study; 2) Paying a close attention to the well-known difference of in vivo and in vitro; 3) Allowing more important role for noise and stochastic effect to play. The last two points have been discussed by two of us (Ao and Yin, cond-mat/0307747), which we believe would be enough to make some of previous theoretical attempts successful, too. We hope the present work would stimulate a further interest in the emerging field of gene regulatory network.