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Main Authors: Lozano, Juan David Marmolejo, Popovic, Nikola, Grima, Ramon
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.27600
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author Lozano, Juan David Marmolejo
Popovic, Nikola
Grima, Ramon
author_facet Lozano, Juan David Marmolejo
Popovic, Nikola
Grima, Ramon
contents Simplified stochastic models are widely used in the study of frequency-resolved noise propagation in biochemical reaction networks, a common measure being the coherence between random fluctuations in molecule number trajectories. Such models have also found widespread application in the quantification of how information is transmitted in reaction networks via the mutual information (MI) rate. A common assumption is that, under timescale separation, estimates for the coherence and MI rate obtained from simplified (reduced) models closely approximate those in the underlying full models. Here, we challenge that assumption by showing that, while reduced models can faithfully reproduce low-order statistics of molecular counts, they frequently incur substantial discrepancies in the coherence spectrum, especially at intermediate and high frequencies. These errors, in turn, lead to significant inaccuracies in the resulting estimates for the MI rates. We show that the observed discrepancies are due to the interplay between the structure of the underlying reaction networks, the specific model reduction method that is applied, and the asymptotic limits relating the full and the reduced models. We illustrate our results in canonical models of enzyme catalysis and gene expression, highlighting practical implications for quantifying information flow in cells.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_27600
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Effects of Model Reduction on Coherence and Information Transfer in Stochastic Biochemical Systems
Lozano, Juan David Marmolejo
Popovic, Nikola
Grima, Ramon
Molecular Networks
Simplified stochastic models are widely used in the study of frequency-resolved noise propagation in biochemical reaction networks, a common measure being the coherence between random fluctuations in molecule number trajectories. Such models have also found widespread application in the quantification of how information is transmitted in reaction networks via the mutual information (MI) rate. A common assumption is that, under timescale separation, estimates for the coherence and MI rate obtained from simplified (reduced) models closely approximate those in the underlying full models. Here, we challenge that assumption by showing that, while reduced models can faithfully reproduce low-order statistics of molecular counts, they frequently incur substantial discrepancies in the coherence spectrum, especially at intermediate and high frequencies. These errors, in turn, lead to significant inaccuracies in the resulting estimates for the MI rates. We show that the observed discrepancies are due to the interplay between the structure of the underlying reaction networks, the specific model reduction method that is applied, and the asymptotic limits relating the full and the reduced models. We illustrate our results in canonical models of enzyme catalysis and gene expression, highlighting practical implications for quantifying information flow in cells.
title Effects of Model Reduction on Coherence and Information Transfer in Stochastic Biochemical Systems
topic Molecular Networks
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.27600