Physical approaches to the dynamics of genetic circuits: A tutorial

TL;DR

This tutorial reviews how physical methods from statistical and nonlinear physics can be applied to understand the dynamic behavior of genetic circuits in living cells, emphasizing the role of noise and intercellular interactions.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of physical approaches to study genetic circuit dynamics, integrating theory and experiments to elucidate structure-function relationships.

Findings

Genetic circuits exhibit complex dynamical phenomena with functional significance.

Noise influences gene regulatory dynamics at single-cell and population levels.

Intercellular coupling affects collective cellular behavior.

Abstract

Cellular behavior is governed by gene regulatory processes that are intrinsically dynamic and nonlinear, and are subject to non-negligible amounts of random fluctuations. Such conditions are ubiquitous in physical systems, where they have been studied for decades using the tools of statistical and nonlinear physics. The goal of this review is to show how approaches traditionally used in physics can help in reaching a systems-level understanding of living cells. To that end, we present an overview of the dynamical phenomena exhibited by genetic circuits and their functional significance. We also describe the theoretical and experimental approaches that are being used to unravel the relationship between circuit structure and function in dynamical cellular processes under the influence of noise, both at the single-cell level and in cellular populations, where intercellular coupling plays an important role.