Regensburg 2007 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 9: Regulation and Signaling

BP 9.5: Talk

Tuesday, March 27, 2007, 11:15–11:30, H43

How general is the Boolean network approach for predictive models? A case study of the yeast cell-cycle. — •Maria Davidich and Stefan Bornholdt — Institute for Theoretical Physics, Bremen University, Bremen, Germany

Boolean networks once were a mere toy model analogy for how regulatory processes in living cells could in principle work [1]. However, today there are examples of Boolean networks predicting regulatory processes in living organisms as the cell-cycle control in yeast [2] or some developmental modules in Drosophila [3]. We here pose the question whether Boolean networks have the potential to provide a new general method for predicting biological regulatory networks and discuss this question by comparing alternative Boolean models for the yeast cell-cycle.

[1] Kauffman, S.A The Origins of Order: Self-Organization and Selection in Evolution (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press), (2003).

[2] Li F, Long T, Lu Y, Quyang Q, Tang C. The yeast Cell-Cycle Network Is Robustly Designed. PNAS, April 6, 2004, vol. 101, no. 14, 4781-4786.

[3] Albert R, Othmer H.G. The topology of the regulatory interactions predicts the expression pattern of the Drosophila segment polarity genes. Journal of Theoretical Biology 223, 1-18 (2003).