Oscillations in multi-stable monotone systems with slowly varying feedback

The study of dynamics of gene regulatory networks is of increasing interest in systems biology. A useful approach to the study of these complex systems is to view them as decomposed into feedback loops around open loop monotone systems. Key features of the dynamics of the original system are then deduced from the input–output characteristics of the open loop system and the sign of the feedback. This paper extends these results, showing how to use the same framework of input–output systems in order to prove existence of oscillations, if the slowly varying strength of the feedback depends on the state of the system.