Quasi-cyclic codes exhibiting the gene regulatory network of the cell cycle

Abstract

We present an artificial Boolean network exhibiting the behaviour similar to that of the cell cycle: three phases and checkpoints between them. The phases follow the increase of the cell mass, while checkpoints ensure that internal errors are corrected before moving to the next phase. The network can tolerate up to one gene mutation and one transient error in gene expressions. It has only 6 genes and is the smallest and simplest network with such behavior. It is based on a special type of error correction codes, resulting in an elegant and symmetric network topology and highly symmetric attractor basin.