A first simplification of the gene expression mechanism considers that a gene is transcribed into messenger RNA, which in turn is translated into protein. Single-cell data have revealed the presence of biological variability between cells of identical genome and environment, highlighting not only epigenetic aspects but also the stochastic nature of gene expression. In the context of regulatory networks underlying cell states and types, we need to build a model that takes into account both stochasticity and the interaction of genes with each other.
Here we focus on a dynamical model of gene expression, formulated as a piecewise-deterministic Markov process (PDMP) and describing an arbitrary number of interacting genes. This stochastic model is able to reproduce the biological variability measured experimentally, but remains mathematically complex and difficult to study. This is why, in the litterature, a simplified model with only proteins is considered. During this talk, we provide insights on construction and use of semigroups and infinitesimal generators for PDMPs. Afterwards we present both models and use coupling methods to explicitly upper bound the error made when substituting the full model with its simplified version.
