ArticleGenetics2005
The Bacillus subtilis sin operon: an evolvable network motif.
Article in Genetics, 2005. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers.
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Who cites it
30 citing papers in PubMed, 74 citations in OpenAlex.
- Phosphorelay changes and plasticity underlie the life history evolution ofMicrobiology (Reading, England) · 2025Article
- Genetic circuit characterization by inferring RNA polymerase movement and ribosome usage.Nature communications · 2020Article
- Clostridioides difficile SinR' regulates toxin, sporulation and motility through protein-protein interaction with SinR.Anaerobe · 2019Article
- Pleiotropic roles of Clostridium difficile sin locus.PLoS pathogens · 2018Article
- Elements of biological oscillations in time and space.Nature structural & molecular biology · 2016Article
- Cis-Antisense Transcription Gives Rise to Tunable Genetic Switch Behavior: A Mathematical Modeling Approach.PloS one · 2015Article
- Modeling of the ComRS Signaling Pathway Reveals the Limiting Factors Controlling Competence in Streptococcus thermophilus.Frontiers in microbiology · 2015Article
- Principles of genetic circuit design.Nature methods · 2014Review
- Design of orthogonal genetic switches based on a crosstalk map of σs, anti-σs, and promoters.Molecular systems biology · 2013Article
- Molecular mechanisms of multiple toxin-antitoxin systems are coordinated to govern the persister phenotype.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2013Article
- Interplay of gene expression noise and ultrasensitive dynamics affects bacterial operon organization.PLoS computational biology · 2012Article
- Prediction by promoter logic in bacterial quorum sensing.PLoS computational biology · 2012Article
- Non-transcriptional regulatory processes shape transcriptional network dynamics.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2011Review
- Robust network topologies for generating switch-like cellular responses.PLoS computational biology · 2011Article
- Article
- Adaptable functionality of transcriptional feedback in bacterial two-component systems.PLoS computational biology · 2010Article
- Deciding fate in adverse times: sporulation and competence in Bacillus subtilis.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2009Article
- Quantifying evolvability in small biological networks.IET systems biology · 2009Article
- Specialized or flexible feed-forward loop motifs: a question of topology.BMC systems biology · 2009Article
- Design principles for riboswitch function.PLoS computational biology · 2009Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The strategy of combining genes from a regulatory protein and its antagonist within the same operon, but controlling their activities differentially, can lead to diverse regulatory functions. This protein-antagonist motif is ubiquitous and present in evolutionarily unrelated regulatory pathways. Using the sin operon from the Bacillus subtilis sporulation pathway as a model system, we built a theoretical model, parameterized it using data from the literature, and used bifurcation analyses to determine the circuit functions it could encode. The model demonstrated that this motif can generate a bistable switch with tunable control over the switching threshold and the degree of population heterogeneity. Further, the model predicted that a small perturbation of a single critical parameter can bias this architecture into functioning like a graded response, a bistable switch, an oscillator, or a pulse generator. By mapping the parameters of the model to specific DNA regions and comparing the genomic sequences of Bacillus species, we showed that phylogenetic variation tends to occur in those regions that tune the switch threshold without disturbing the circuit function. The dynamical plasticity of the protein-antagonist operon motif suggests that it is an evolutionarily convergent design selected not only for particular immediate function but also for its evolvability.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.