Uri Alon's transcriptional network motifs: pulse generation, delay, and noise filtering in gene regulation
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Negative autoregulation: X represses its own production. Speeds up response time and reduces steady-state noise.
Network motifs (Alon et al. 2002) are patterns in transcription networks that appear far more often than in random networks. Negative autoregulation (NAR) speeds up response ~√2× faster than simple regulation. Coherent FFL acts as a sign-sensitive delay (filters brief signals). Incoherent FFL generates pulses. These are the "recurring circuit elements" of gene regulatory networks.