Stochastic equations for a self-regulating gene

Abstract: Expression of cellular genes is regulated by binding of transcription factors to their promoter, either activating or inhibiting transcription of a gene. Particularly interesting is the case when the expressed protein regulates its own transcription. In this paper the features of this self-regulating process are investigated. In the here presented model the gene can be in two states. Either a protein is bound to its promoter or not. The steady state distributions of protein during and at the end of both states are analyzed. Moreover a powerful numerical method based on the corresponding master equation to compute the protein distribution in the steady state is presented and compared to an already existing method. Additionally the special case of self-regulation, in which protein can only be produced, if one of these proteins is bound to the promoter region, is analyzed. Furthermore a self-regulating gene is compared to a similar gene, which also has two states and produces the same amount of proteins but is not regulated by its protein-product.