Xiao Xuan, Shao Shihuang, Ding Yongsheng, Huang Zhengde, Chen Xiaojing, Chou Kuo-Chen
Bio-Informatics Research Center, Donghua University, Shanghai 200051, China.
J Theor Biol. 2005 Aug 21;235(4):555-65. doi: 10.1016/j.jtbi.2005.02.008. Epub 2005 Mar 24.
Hepatitis B viruses (HBVs) show instantaneous and high-ratio mutations when they are replicated, some sorts of which significantly affect the efficiency of virus replication through enhancing or depressing the viral replication, while others have no influence at all. The mechanism of gene expression is closely correlated with its gene sequence. With the rapid increase in the number of newly found sequences entering into data banks, it is highly desirable to develop an automated method for simulating the gene regulating function. The establishment of such a predictor will no doubt expedite the process of prioritizing genes and proteins identified by genomics efforts as potential molecular targets for drug design. Based on the power of cellular automata (CA) in treating complex systems with simple rules, a novel method to present HBV gene image has been introduced. The results show that the images thus obtained can very efficiently simulate the effects of the gene missense mutation on the virus replication. It is anticipated that CA may also serve as a useful vehicle for many other studies on complicated biological systems.
乙型肝炎病毒（HBV）在复制时会出现瞬时且高比例的突变，其中一些突变通过增强或抑制病毒复制显著影响病毒复制效率，而其他一些则毫无影响。基因表达机制与其基因序列密切相关。随着新发现序列进入数据库的数量迅速增加，迫切需要开发一种自动方法来模拟基因调控功能。建立这样一个预测器无疑将加快对基因组学研究中确定为药物设计潜在分子靶点的基因和蛋白质进行优先级排序的过程。基于细胞自动机（CA）以简单规则处理复杂系统的能力，引入了一种呈现HBV基因图像的新方法。结果表明，由此获得的图像能够非常有效地模拟基因错义突变对病毒复制的影响。预计CA也可作为研究许多其他复杂生物系统的有用工具。
