This work addresses sensitivity analysis of autonomously oscillating biochemical systems. Building on results from the engineering literature, a general analysis is presented which addresses key features of oscillatory trajectories, namely the period and local maximum or minimum values of species concentrations and reaction rates. A discussion of sensitivity invariants generalizes results from steady-state sensitivity analysis to this context. The results are illustrated by application to a

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... l of a circadian oscillator. * Supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. * The reason for this divergent behaviour is that a change in the parameter p typically results in a change in the period of oscillation. If this is the case, then no matter how small the change, eventually the nominal and perturbed trajectory are very far apart, as they grow out of phase.