The effect of coupled feedback on noise filtering in signal transduction networks

Many interacting biomolecular components in cells form different positive or negative feedback loops. When biological signals transduce through cascades consisting of various loops they will be affected or even distorted. Especially, how to process various signals buried in various intrinsic and extrinsic noises is an important issue. This paper analyzes how the response time influences noise filtering ability and how to enhance the ability by coupling different feedback loops. A parameter to measure the response time of the signal transduction, i.e., τ 0.9 , and its relationship between the response time and noise filtering will be discussed. The authors show clearly that the longer the response time is, the better the ability to filter noises will be. Therefore, to enhance the ability to filter noises, the authors can prolong the response time by coupling different positive or negative feedback loops. The results provide a possible approach to enhance the ability to filter noises in larger biomolecular networks.