Detuning-dependent dominance of oscillation death in globally coupled synthetic genetic oscillators

¹  Center for Dynamics of Complex Systems, University of Potsdam - D-14469 Potsdam, Germany, EU
²  Department Theoretical Physics, Lebedev Physical Institute - Leninskii 53, Moscow, Russia
³  Institute of Physics, Humboldt University Berlin - D-10099 Berlin, Germany, EU
⁴  Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research - D-14412 Potsdam, Germany, EU

Received: 10 September 2008
Accepted: 19 December 2008

Abstract

We study dynamical regimes of globally coupled genetic relaxation oscillators in the presence of small detuning. Using bifurcation analysis, we find that under strong coupling via the slow variable, the detuning can eliminate standard oscillatory solutions in a large region of the parameter space, providing the dominance of oscillation death. This result is substantially different from previous results on oscillation quenching, where for homogeneous populations, the coexistence of oscillation death and limit cycle oscillations is always present. We propose further that this effect of detuning-dependent dominance could be a powerful regulator of genetic network's dynamics.