Oscillatory expression and variability in p53 regulatory network

The effect of delay, nonlinearity and noise on oscillatory motion is of permanent interest for theoretical and experimental research. Here we explore a negative feedback loop between p53 and Mdm2 with a time delay, which is a key circuit in the response of cells to damage. This circuit shows noisy sustained oscillations in individual human cells following DNA damage, and damped oscillations at the cell population level. We demonstrate the effect of delay on the oscillation, and the correlation in time course. In a multi-species system, the events at different time points which span a time delay are coupled even when the delay is large compared with the other characteristic times of the system. We also clarify that the dynamics at the single-cell level appears to be coherent resonance, and the origin of the damped oscillation at the macroscopic level out of the sustained ones at the single-cell level can be ascribed to the dephasing process which is induced by the interplay between nonlinearity and noise. The findings are consistent with experimental observations and advance our understanding of the dynamics of the p53 network.