Work

Functional Motifs in Biochemical Reaction Networks

Year: 2010

Type: review

Abstract: The signal-response characteristics of a living cell are determined by complex networks of interacting genes, proteins, and metabolites. Understanding how cells respond to specific challenges, how these responses are contravened in diseased cells, and how to intervene pharmacologically in the decision-making processes of cells requires an accurate theory of the information-processing capabilities of macromolecular regulatory networks. Adopting an engineer's approach to control systems, we ask whether realistic cellular control networks can be decomposed into simple regulatory motifs that carry out specific functions in a cell. We show that such functional motifs exist and review the experimental evidence that they control cellular responses as expected.

Source: Annual Review of Physical Chemistry

DOI: 10.1146/annurev.physchem.012809.103457

Authors: John J. Tyson, Béla Novák

Institutions: Virginia Tech, University of Oxford

Language: English

Topic: Gene Regulatory Network Analysis

Subfield: Molecular Biology

Field: Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Domain: Life Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funders: Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, National Institute of General Medical Sciences

Awards: G4025797250, Stochastic models of cell cycle regulation in eukaryotes, Experimental and Computational Studies of Exit from Mitosis in Budding Yeast