PNNL

Abstract

Theoretical analysis of signaling pathways can provide a substantial amount of insight into their function. One particular area of research considers signaling pathways capable of assuming two or more stable states given the same amount of signaling ligand. This phenomenon of bistability can give rise to switch-like behavior, a mechanism that governs cellular decision making. Investigation of whether or not a signaling pathway can confer bistability and switch-like behavior, without knowledge of specific kinetic rate constant values, is a mathematically challenging problem. Recently a technique based on optimization has been introduced, which is capable of finding example parameter values that confer switch-like behavior for a given pathway. Although this approach has made it possible to analyze moderately sized pathways, it is limited to reaction networks that presume a uniterminal structure. It is this limited structure we address by developing a general technique that applies to any mass action reaction network with conservation laws.