Before revision: Cells with identical genomes often exhibit biochemically distinct phenotypic states ; stochastic switchings among them are one of the functional roles of "noise" in a genetic circuitry. To quantify the stabilities of these phenotypic states and, more importantly, the transition rates among them, we study a minimal model of gene regulation that incorporates positive feedbackwith multiple gene states. We first show that starting from a full Delbr\"uck-Gillespie-process description of the gene regulation network, two much simpler stochastic biochemical kinetic systems can be deduced, respectively, in the limit of either the stochastic gene-state switching or transcription factor copy-number fluctuation being dominant among other sources of noise.
After revision: Multiple phenotypic states often arise in a single cell with different gene-expression states that undergo transcription regulation with positive feedback. Recent experiments have shown that at least in E. coli, the gene state switching can be neither extremely slow nor exceedingly rapid as many previous theoretical treatments assumed. Rather it is in the intermediate region which is difficult to handle mathematically.Under this condition, from a full Delbr\"uck-Gillespie-process description of the gene regulation network, two much simpler stochastic biochemical kinetic systems can be deduced, respectively, in the limit of either the stochastic gene-state switching or transcription factor copy-number fluctuation being dominant among other sources of noise.