Mathematics of RNA interference

  • IFISC Seminar

  • Konstantin Blyuss
  • University of Sussex
  • March 22, 2017, 2:30 p.m.
  • IFISC Seminar Room
  • Announcement file

One of the fascinating features of cellular dynamics of eukaryotes, including animals, is the RNA interference that refers to the ability of cells to suppress an undesired gene expression. This process plays a fundamental role in organisms’ ability to defend their cells against infections, and also is very important for development. In this talk I will discuss two mathematical models addressing different aspects of RNA interference. The first model [1] focuses on the immune responses in plants and investigates the effects of time delays associated with the propagation time of RNA silencing signal and the maturation time of plant cells. I will present detailed bifurcation analysis of this model to illustrate how stability and dynamical behaviour are affected by the system parameters and the time delays. The second model [2] looks into general mechanisms of RNA interference and studies the effects of time delays associated with primed amplification on bi-stability. I will show how time delays can influence the hysteresis present in the system, causing a new regime of co-existence of a stable steady state and a stable periodic orbits, which has a profound effect on the dynamics.


[1] G. Neofytou, Y.N. Kyrychko, K.B. Blyuss, Time-delayed model of immune response in plants, J. Theor. Biol. 389, 28-39 (2016).


[2] G. Neofytou, Y.N. Kyrychko, K.B. Blyuss, Time-delayed model of RNA interference, Ecol. Compl., in press (2017).


Contact details:

Ingo Fischer

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