Problems and paradigms

Coupled positive and negative feedback circuits form an essential building block of cellular signaling pathways

  1. Dongsan Kim1,
  2. Yung-Keun Kwon1,2,
  3. Kwang-Hyun Cho1,2,*

Article first published online: 22 DEC 2006

DOI: 10.1002/bies.20511

Issue

BioEssays

BioEssays

Volume 29, Issue 1, pages 85–90, January 2007

Additional Information

How to Cite

Kim, D., Kwon, Y.-K. and Cho, K.-H. (2007), Coupled positive and negative feedback circuits form an essential building block of cellular signaling pathways. Bioessays, 29: 85–90. doi: 10.1002/bies.20511

Author Information

  1. 1

    College of Medicine, Seoul National University, Jongno-gu, Seoul, Korea.

  2. 2

    Bio-MAX Institute, Seoul National University, Gwanak-gu, Seoul, Korea

*Bio-MAX Institute, Seoul National University, 3rd Floor, IVI, San 4-8, Bongcheon 7-dong, Gwanak-gu, Seoul, 151-818, Republic of Korea.

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 22 DEC 2006
  2. Article first published online: 22 DEC 2006

Funded by

  • This work was supported by Korea Ministry of Science and Technology through the Korean Systems Biology Research Grant (M10503010001-05N030100111) and the 21C Frontier Microbial Genomics and Application Center Program (Grant MG05-0204-3-0), and in part from the Korea Ministry of Commerce, Industry & Energy through the Korea Bio-Hub Program (2005-B0000002)

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Abstract

Cellular circuits have positive and negative feedback loops that allow them to respond properly to noisy external stimuli. It is intriguing that such feedback loops exist in many cases in a particular form of coupled positive and negative feedback loops with different time delays. As a result of our mathematical simulations and investigations into various experimental evidences, we found that such coupled feedback circuits can rapidly turn on a reaction to a proper stimulus, robustly maintain its status, and immediately turn off the reaction when the stimulus disappears. In other words, coupled feedback loops enable cellular systems to produce perfect responses to noisy stimuli with respect to signal duration and amplitude. This suggests that coupled positive and negative feedback loops form essential signal transduction motifs in cellular signaling systems. BioEssays 29: 85–90, 2007. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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