Richards D, Berry S, Howard M
Division of Molecular Biosciences, Imperial College London, SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom.
Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol. 2012;77:175-81. doi: 10.1101/sqb.2013.77.015941. Epub 2013 Jan 22.
In the past few years, mathematical modeling approaches in biology have begun to fulfill their promise by assisting in the dissection of complex biological systems. Here, we review two recent examples of predictive mathematical modeling in plant biology. The first involves the quantitative epigenetic silencing of the floral repressor gene FLC in Arabidopsis, mediated by a Polycomb-based system. The second involves the spatiotemporal dynamics of telomere bouquet formation in wheat-rye meiosis. Although both the biology and the modeling framework of the two systems are different, both exemplify how mathematical modeling can help to accelerate discovery of the underlying mechanisms in complex biological systems. In both cases, the models that developed were relatively minimal, including only essential features, but both nevertheless yielded fundamental insights. We also briefly review the current state of mathematical modeling in biology, difficulties inherent in its application, and its potential future development.
在过去几年中，生物学中的数学建模方法已开始通过协助剖析复杂生物系统来兑现其承诺。在此，我们回顾植物生物学中预测性数学建模的两个最新实例。第一个涉及拟南芥中花抑制基因FLC的定量表观遗传沉默，由基于多梳蛋白的系统介导。第二个涉及小麦-黑麦减数分裂中端粒花束形成的时空动态。尽管这两个系统的生物学和建模框架不同，但两者都例证了数学建模如何有助于加速发现复杂生物系统中的潜在机制。在这两种情况下，所开发的模型都相对简单，仅包括基本特征，但两者都产生了重要见解。我们还简要回顾了生物学中数学建模的当前状态、其应用中固有的困难以及其潜在的未来发展。
