Propagation of external regulation and asynchronous dynamics in random Boolean networks

Boolean networks and their dynamics are of great interest as abstract modeling schemes in various disciplines, ranging from biology to computer science. Whereas parallel update schemes have been studied extensively in past years, the level of understanding of asynchronous updates schemes is still very poor. In this paper we study the propagation of external information given by regulatory input variables into a random Boolean network. We compute both analytically and numerically the time evolution and the asymptotic behavior of this propagation of external regulation (PER). In particular, this allows us to identify variables that are completely determined by this external information. All those variables in the network that are not directly fixed by PER form a core which contains, in particular, all nontrivial feedback loops. We design a message-passing approach allowing to characterize the statistical properties of these cores in dependence of the Boolean network and the external condition. At the end we establish a link between PER dynamics and the full random asynchronous dynamics of a Boolean network.(c) 2007 American Institute of Physics.