Dresden 2006 – scientific programme

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AKB: Biologische Physik

AKB 1: Cellular Processes

AKB 1.5: Talk

Monday, March 27, 2006, 11:15–11:30, ZEU 255

The precision of genetic oscillators and clocks — •Luis G. Morelli and Frank Jülicher — Max Planck Institut für Physik komplexer Systeme, Nöthnitzer Str. 38 (01187) Dresden, Germany

Genetic oscillations play a major role in different cellular processes, for example in circadian clocks, during the cell cycle, and patterning in developing embryos. Due to the stochastic nature of gene expression, the period of these oscillations is subject to fluctuations. The precision of the oscillator can be characterized by the quality factor. We study the precision of genetic oscillators in a simple but general stochastic feedback system. We show that high quality is possible for certain parameter ranges even when the number of molecules is low and amplitude fluctuations are large. We relate our results to circadian clocks in bacteria, where high quality oscillations have been observed in single cell experiments.