Multistability and sustained oscillations in a model for protein complex formation

We investigate a model for the formation of protein complexes where each protein can occur at most once in a complex. The reaction rates for association and dissociation of proteins can be chosen independently for each reaction, without imposing detailed balance conditions. We show that this simple model can display multistability and periodic oscillations when it contains at least four different protein species. We prove that a system with three elementary species cannot be multistable.