Signal processing in cellular clocks

Many biochemical events within a cell need to be timed properly to occur at specific times of day, after other events have happened within the cell or in response to environmental signals. The cellular biochemical feedback loops that time these events have already received much recent attention in the experimental and modeling communities. Here, we show how ideas from signal processing can be applied to understand the function of these clocks. Consider two signals from the network s(t) and r(t), either two variables of a model or two experimentally measured time courses. We show how s(t) can be decomposed into two parts, the first being a function of r(t), and the second the derivative of a function of r(t). Geometric principles are then derived that can be used to understand when oscillations appear in biochemical feedback loops, the period of these oscillations, and their time course. Specific examples of this theory are provided that show how certain networks are prone or not prone to oscillate, how individual biochemical processes affect the period, and how oscillations in one chemical species can be deduced from oscillations in other parts of the network.