François Paul, Hakim Vincent
Laboratoire de Physique Statistique, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique-Unité Mixte de Recherche 8550, Ecole Normale Supérieure, 24, Rue Lhomond, 75231 Paris, France.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2004 Jan 13;101(2):580-5. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0304532101. Epub 2004 Jan 2.
Recent studies have provided insights into the modular structure of genetic regulatory networks and emphasized the interest of quantitative functional descriptions. Here, to provide a priori knowledge of the structure of functional modules, we describe an evolutionary procedure in silico that creates small gene networks performing basic tasks. We used it to create networks functioning as bistable switches or oscillators. The obtained circuits provide a variety of functional designs, demonstrate the crucial role of posttranscriptional interactions, and highlight design principles also found in known biological networks. The procedure should prove helpful as a way to understand and create small functional modules with diverse functions as well as to analyze large networks.
最近的研究深入探讨了基因调控网络的模块化结构，并强调了定量功能描述的重要性。在此，为了提供功能模块结构的先验知识，我们描述了一种计算机模拟的进化程序，该程序可创建执行基本任务的小型基因网络。我们用它来创建用作双稳态开关或振荡器的网络。所获得的电路提供了多种功能设计，证明了转录后相互作用的关键作用，并突出了在已知生物网络中也发现的设计原则。该程序作为一种理解和创建具有多种功能的小型功能模块以及分析大型网络的方法，应该会被证明是有用的。
