TY - JOUR
T1 - Robustness and fragility of Boolean models for genetic regulatory networks
AU - Chaves, Madalena
AU - Albert, Réka
AU - Sontag, Eduardo D.
N1 - Funding Information:
The work of M.C. was supported in part by NIH Grants P20 GM64375 and Sanofi-aventis. R.A. gratefully acknowledges an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship. The work of E.D.S. was supported in part by NSF Grant CCR-0206789 and NIH Grants P20 GM64375 and R01 GM46383.
PY - 2005/8/7
Y1 - 2005/8/7
N2 - Interactions between genes and gene products give rise to complex circuits that enable cells to process information and respond to external signals. Theoretical studies often describe these interactions using continuous, stochastic, or logical approaches. We propose a new modeling framework for gene regulatory networks, that combines the intuitive appeal of a qualitative description of gene states with a high flexibility in incorporating stochasticity in the duration of cellular processes. We apply our methods to the regulatory network of the segment polarity genes, thus gaining novel insights into the development of gene expression patterns. For example, we show that very short synthesis and decay times can perturb the wild-type pattern. On the other hand, separation of time-scales between pre- and post-translational processes and a minimal prepattern ensure convergence to the wild-type expression pattern regardless of fluctuations.
AB - Interactions between genes and gene products give rise to complex circuits that enable cells to process information and respond to external signals. Theoretical studies often describe these interactions using continuous, stochastic, or logical approaches. We propose a new modeling framework for gene regulatory networks, that combines the intuitive appeal of a qualitative description of gene states with a high flexibility in incorporating stochasticity in the duration of cellular processes. We apply our methods to the regulatory network of the segment polarity genes, thus gaining novel insights into the development of gene expression patterns. For example, we show that very short synthesis and decay times can perturb the wild-type pattern. On the other hand, separation of time-scales between pre- and post-translational processes and a minimal prepattern ensure convergence to the wild-type expression pattern regardless of fluctuations.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jtbi.2005.01.023
DO - 10.1016/j.jtbi.2005.01.023
M3 - Article
C2 - 15882705
AN - SCOPUS:18844380444
VL - 235
SP - 431
EP - 449
JO - Journal of Theoretical Biology
JF - Journal of Theoretical Biology
SN - 0022-5193
IS - 3
ER -