Non-equilibrium thermodynamics analysis of transcriptional regulation kinetics

Abstract

Gene expression in eukaryotic cells is an extremely complex and interesting phenomenon whose dynamics are controlled by a large number of subtle physicochemical processes commonly described by means of gene regulatory networks. Such networks consist in a series of coupled chemical reactions, conformational changes, and other biomolecular processes involving the interaction of the DNA molecule itself with a number of proteins usually called transcription factors as well as enzymes and other components. The kinetics behind the functioning of such gene regulatory networks are largely unknown, though its description in terms of non-equilibrium thermodynamics has been discussed recently. In this work we will derive general kinetic equations for a gene regulatory network from a non-equilibrium thermodynamical description and discuss its use in understanding the free energy constrains imposed in the network structure. We also will discuss explicit expressions for the kinetics of a simple model of gene regulation and show that the kinetic role of mRNA decay during the RNA synthesis stage (or transcription) is somehow limited due to the comparatively low values of decay rates. At the level discussed here, this implies a decoupling of the kinetics of mRNA synthesis and degradation a fact that may become quite useful when modeling gene regulatory networks from experimental data on whole genome gene expression.