Negative feedback
Finally, the continuation of the cell cycle requires persisting oscillations in cyclin-B/CDK1 activity as the cell and its descendants transition in and out of M-phase. Negative feedback provides one essential element of this long-term oscillation: cyclin-B/CDK activates APC/C, which causes degradation of cyclin-B from metaphase onwards, restoring CDK1 to its inactive state. However, simple negative feedback loops lead to damped oscillations that eventually settle on a steady state. Kinetic models show that negative feedback loops coupled with bistable positive feedback motifs can lead to persistent, non-damped oscillations (see relaxation oscillator) of the kind required for long-term cell cycling.