Bioautomation (Dec 2006)
Qualitative Modelling of Quasi-homogeneous Effects in ERK and STAT Interaction Dynamics
Abstract
On the basis of qualitative analysis of author's model published in previous paper, the stability and temporal behaviour of quasi-homogeneous distributions of ERK-protein concentrations are analyzed in terms of corresponding reaction-diffusion problem. The stable quasi-homogeneous distributions are treated as a dynamical basis of pathway compartmentalization. It is also shown, that a crowding effect exists in the form of loss of pathway stability. An experimentally verifiable issue for possible existence of protein scaffolding mechanism is derived on the basis of its qualitative correspondence with the pattern formation and molecular crowding effects inherent to the considered model. Moreover, it is demonstrated, that the predicted ERK and STAT pathway instability can be interpreted as traveling wave propagation of molecular concentration drop and jump from the nucleus membrane to the cell one and vice versa.
