# Role of transcriptional bursts in cellular oscillations

## TL;DR

This paper investigates how transcriptional bursting influences the robustness of cellular protein oscillations, revealing that optimal burst intensity enhances oscillation regularity, while too short and intense bursts can be detrimental.

## Contribution

It demonstrates the relationship between bursty transcription profiles and oscillation robustness, identifying an optimal burst intensity for regular cellular oscillations.

## Key findings

- Bursts generally increase oscillation robustness.
- Too short and intense bursts can reduce regularity.
- An optimal burst intensity exists for best oscillation stability.

## Abstract

Genetic oscillators are present in the cells of many organisms and control several biological processes. The common feature of such oscillators is the presence of a protein which represses the transcription of its own gene. Recently, it has been shown that for many genes transcription is not a continuous process, but that it proceeds in bursts. We study here the relationship between bursty transcription and the robustness of protein oscillations. We concentrate on the temporal profile of mRNA production by studying regimes where this profile changes but the amount of mRNA produced is kept fixed. For systems with different degrees of cooperativity we show that in general bursts are associated with more robust oscillations, but when they are too short and intense they can have the opposite effect. In other words, we show that, in terms of the regularity of the oscillations generated, there is an optimal value for the intensity of the bursts.