SWITCHES: Searchable Web Interface for Topologies of CHEmical Switches

Abstract

Bistable biochemical switches are key motifs in cellular state decisions and long-term storage of cellular 'memory'. There are a few known biological switches that have been well characterized, however these examples are insufficient for systematic surveys of properties of these important systems. Here we present a resource of all possible bistable biochemical reaction networks with up to 6 reactions between 3 molecules, and 3 reactions between 4 molecules. Over 35,000 reaction topologies were constructed by identifying unique combinations of reactions between a fixed number of molecules. Then, these topologies were populated with rates within a biologically realistic range. The Searchable Web Interface for Topologies of CHEmical Switches (SWITCHES, https://switches.ncbs.res.in) provides a bistability and parameter analysis of over 7 million models from this systematic survey of chemical reaction space. This database will be useful for theoreticians interested in analyzing stability in chemical systems and also experimentalists for creating robust synthetic biological switches.