Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: Non-monotonic steady state response curves can readily arise from an incoherent feedforward loop (IFFL), which has also been conjectured to be a necessary mechanism. In a previous work, we showed this conjecture to be false for systems where the control parameter directly influences only one state variable. Here, we extend this result to arbitrary systems. We show that a stable non-monotonic response requires either an IFFL or a combination of positive and negative feedback loops. Finally, we apply our theoretical findings to three network-structured biological contexts: signaling pathways, gene regulation, and ecological consumer-resource models. For the first two contexts, we identify necessary motifs for non-monotonic responses, while for consumer-resource models, we provide an alternative proof of the Competitive Exclusion Principle.
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Authors: Yu, Polly Y., Sontag, Eduardo D.
Language: English
Subfield: Molecular Biology
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7220731838