Importance of Metabolic Coupling for the Dynamics of Gene Expression Following a Diauxic Shift in E. coli

摘要

Gene regulatory networks consist of direct interactions on the transcriptional level, but also include indirect interactions mediated by metabolism. We investigate to which extent these indirect interactions influence the dynamics of the system. To this end, we build a qualitative model of the gene regulatory network controlling carbon assimilation in E. coli, and use this model to study the changes in gene expression following a diauxic shift from glucose to acetate. We find significant differences between the dynamics of the system in the absence and presence of metabolic coupling. This shows that interactions arising from metabolic coupling cannot be ignored when studying the dynamics of gene regulatory networks.