Noisy out of necessity: the relationship among gene circuit architecture, dynamics and biological function

Cellular processes are typically controlled by gene regulatory circuits that are comprised of interactions among genes and proteins. However, the functional importance of a particular pattern of interactions (architecture) that constitutes a genetic circuit remains poorly understood. I will present research that aims to investigate the relationship among gene circuit architecture, dynamics and function. We find that these gene circuit properties are linked by their susceptibility to stochastic behavior. Environmental constraints may thus select for gene circuit architectures based on their architecture-dependent noise profiles.