Figure 3.

Predicted change in the steady-state rate of protein synthesis and its relaxation time. Graphs illustrating the predicted change in the steady-state rate of protein synthesis (left), and its relaxation time, i.e., the time needed to recover from a perturbation to the steady state value (right). Four curves are presented. The black ones are for the wild-type cap structure, which is modeled by k₁ = k₂. The red ones are for the modified structure, when k₁ <<k₂. The main conclusion from the left graph is that if microRNA acts on a late initiation step, diminishing k₂, then its effect is not measurable unless k₂ is very strongly suppressed (as reported in [41]). The main conclusion from the right graph is that the effect of microRNA can be measurable in this case if one looks at dynamical features such the relaxation time.