Abstract
Many intracellular components are present in low copy numbers per cell and subject to feedback control. We use chemical master equations to analyze a negative feedback system where species and regulate each other's synthesis with standard intracellular kinetics. For a given number of -molecules, -variation can be significant. We show that this signal noise does not necessarily increase -variation as previously thought but, surprisingly, can be necessary to reduce it below a Poissonian limit. The principle resembles Stochastic Resonance in that signal noise improves signal detection.
- Received 9 February 2000
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.84.5447
©2000 American Physical Society