Schultz, DanielLu, MingyangStavropoulos, TrevorOnuchic, JoseBen-Jacob, Eshel2013-10-182013Schultz, Daniel, Mingyang Lu, Trevor Stavropoulos, Jose Onuchic, and Eshel Ben-Jacob. 2013. Turning oscillations into opportunities: lessons from a bacterial decision gate. Scientific Reports 3:1668.2045-2322http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:11181097Sporulation vs. competence provides a prototypic example of collective cell fate determination. The decision is performed by the action of three modules: 1) A stochastic competence switch whose transition probability is regulated by population density, population stress and cell stress. 2) A sporulation timer whose clock rate is regulated by cell stress and population stress. 3) A decision gate that is coupled to the timer via a special repressilator-like loop. We show that the distinct circuit architecture of this gate leads to special dynamics and noise management characteristics: The gate opens a time-window of opportunity for competence transitions during which it generates oscillations that are turned into a chain of transition opportunities – each oscillation opens a short interval with high transition probability. The special architecture of the gate also leads to filtering of external noise and robustness against internal noise and variations in the circuit parameters.en-USgene regulatory networksbacterial systems biologycomplex networksbiological physicsJournal Article2013-10-1810.1038/srep01668