Genetic regulation networks: circuits, regulons and attractors

C R Biol. 2003 Feb;326(2):171-88. doi: 10.1016/s1631-0691(03)00069-6.

Abstract

We deal in this paper with the concept of genetic regulation network. The genes expression observed through the bio-array imaging allows the geneticist to obtain the intergenic interaction matrix W of the network. The interaction graph G associated to W presents in general interesting features like connected components, gardens of Eden, positive and negative circuits (or loops), and minimal components having 1 positive and 1 negative loop called regulons. Depending on parameters values like the connectivity coefficient K(W) and the mean inhibition weight I(W), the genetic regulation network can present several dynamical behaviours (fixed configuration, limit cycle of configurations) called attractors, when the observation time increases. We give some examples of such genetic regulation networks and analyse their dynamical properties and their biological consequences.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Arabidopsis / genetics
  • Arabidopsis / growth & development
  • Bacteriophage lambda / physiology
  • Drosophila melanogaster / embryology
  • Gastrula / physiology
  • Gene Expression Profiling
  • Gene Expression Regulation*
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Plant
  • Lysogeny
  • Mathematics
  • Models, Genetic
  • Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis
  • Regulon