Structural modeling and analysis of signaling pathways based on Petri nets

J Bioinform Comput Biol. 2006 Oct;4(5):1119-40. doi: 10.1142/s021972000600234x.

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to discuss how to model and analyze signaling pathways by using Petri net. Firstly, we propose a modeling method based on Petri net by paying attention to the molecular interactions and mechanisms. Then, we introduce a new notion "activation transduction component" in order to describe an enzymic activation process of reactions in signaling pathways and shows its correspondence to a so-called elementary T-invariant in the Petri net models. Further, we design an algorithm to effectively find basic enzymic activation processes by obtaining a series of elementary T-invariants in the Petri net models. Finally, we demonstrate how our method is practically used in modeling and analyzing signaling pathway mediated by thrombopoietin as an example.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms*
  • Cell Physiological Phenomena*
  • Computer Simulation
  • Models, Biological*
  • Neural Networks, Computer*
  • Numerical Analysis, Computer-Assisted
  • Signal Transduction / physiology*
  • Terminology as Topic*