Negative feedback self-regulation contributes to robust and high-fidelity transmembrane signal transduction

Abstract

We present a minimal motif model for transmembrane cell signalling. The model assumes signalling events taking place in spatially distributed nanoclusters regulated by a birth/death dynamics. The combination of these spatio-temporal aspects can be modulated to provide a robust and high-fidelity response behaviour without invoking sophisticated modelling of the signalling process as a sequence of cascade reactions and fine-tuned parameters. Our results show that the fact that the distributed signalling events take place in nanoclusters with a finite lifetime regulated by local production is sufficient to obtain a robust and high-fidelity response.