He Qinbin, Liu Zengrong
Department of Mathematics, Taizhou University, Linhai, Zhejiang 317000, China.
Institute of System Biology, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China.
J Theor Biol. 2014 Jul 21;353:61-6. doi: 10.1016/j.jtbi.2014.03.017. Epub 2014 Mar 18.
Genetic oscillator motifs and genetic switch motifs are blocks of biochemical reaction networks, which are involved in the regulation of rhythms, cell cycle progression, signal processing and cell fate decision. These motifs often interact to constitute complex signal processing systems. There widely exists the oscillation accumulation triggered mechanism in gene regulatory networks, i.e., an oscillator promotes the accumulation of a signaling protein over a threshold value, and activates a switch. The structure can be fund in some important biological function switches, such as apoptosis and DNA repair. We propose the structure as an oscillation accumulation triggered genetic switch (OATGS). Through mathematical modeling and analysis, results show the OATGS with features of robustness to noise and triggered mode. In addition, we show the existence of OATGS features and triggered manner in p53 gene regulatory networks, and explain some of the p53 regulation process, such as counting mechanism and pulse shape. We speculate that OATGS with oscillation accumulation triggered manner is a new important biological function switch.
遗传振荡器基序和遗传开关基序是生化反应网络的模块，它们参与节律调节、细胞周期进程、信号处理和细胞命运决定。这些基序常常相互作用以构成复杂的信号处理系统。在基因调控网络中广泛存在振荡积累触发机制，即一个振荡器促使一种信号蛋白积累超过阈值，并激活一个开关。这种结构可在一些重要的生物学功能开关中找到，如细胞凋亡和DNA修复。我们将这种结构提出作为振荡积累触发遗传开关（OATGS）。通过数学建模和分析，结果表明OATGS具有对噪声的鲁棒性和触发模式的特征。此外，我们展示了OATGS特征和触发方式在p53基因调控网络中的存在，并解释了p53的一些调控过程，如计数机制和脉冲形状。我们推测具有振荡积累触发方式的OATGS是一种新的重要生物学功能开关。
