FitzGerald C, Keener JP. Bifurcation Analysis of a Heat-Sensitive Epigenetic Regulatory Network.
Bull Math Biol 2021;
84:14. [PMID:
34870767 DOI:
10.1007/s11538-021-00960-x]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2021] [Accepted: 10/20/2021] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Abstract
An epigenetic regulatory network that influences transgenerational inheritance of a heat-altered phenotype was recently discovered in Arabidopsis. Our analysis shows that transgenerational inheritance of the heat-altered phenotype operates in a switch-like manner and can be turned on or off as a function of heat. We also show that trans-acting small interfering RNAs act as an "inverse amplifier" of HTT5, the protein that controls the heat-altered phenotype by a currently unknown mechanism. Our analysis uses the resultant to find an analytic expression for a cusp curve in parameter space and to find a parameter bound on switch-like behavior.
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