Back

Positive feedback induces switch between distributive and processive phosphorylation of Hog1

Mosbacher, M.; Lee, S. S.; Peter, M.; Claassen, M.

2020-05-05 systems biology
10.1101/2020.05.05.078352 bioRxiv
Show abstract

Cellular decision making often builds on ultrasensitive MAPK pathways. The phosphorylation mechanism of MAP kinase has so far been described as either distributive or processive, with distributive mechanisms generating ultrasensitivity in theoretical analyses. However, the in vivo mechanism of MAP kinase phosphorylation and its regulation by feedback loops remain unclear. We thus characterized the regulation of the MAP kinase Hog1 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which is transiently activated in response to hyperosmolarity. Specifically, we combined Hog1 activation data from different modalities and multiple conditions. We constructed ODE models with different pathway topologies, which were then assessed via parameter estimation and model selection. Interestingly, our best fitting model switches between distributive and processive phosphorylation behavior via a positive feedback loop targeting the MAP kinase-kinase Pbs2. Simulations further suggest that this mixed mechanism is required not only for full sensitivity to stimuli, but also to ensure robustness to different perturbations.

Matching journals

The top 5 journals account for 50% of the predicted probability mass.

50% of probability mass above

"Similar papers" are the closest papers from that journal in the model's embedding space. They show what the match is built on, but the ranking comes mostly from a classifier over the whole training set, not from these examples alone.