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- Title
Simple, realistic models of complex biological processes: Positive feedback and bistability in a cell fate switch and a cell cycle oscillator
- Authors
Ferrell, James E.; Pomerening, Joseph R.; Kim, Sun Young; Trunnell, Nikki B.; Xiong, Wen; Huang, Chi-Ying Frederick; Machleder, Eric M.
- Abstract
Abstract: Here we review some of our work over the last decade on Xenopus oocyte maturation, a cell fate switch, and the Xenopus embryonic cell cycle, a highly dynamical process. Our approach has been to start with wiring diagrams for the regulatory networks that underpin the processes; carry out quantitative experiments to describe the response functions for individual legs of the networks; and then construct simple analytical models based on chemical kinetic theory and the graphical rate-balance formalism. These studies support the view that the all-or-none, irreversible nature of oocyte maturation arises from a saddle–node bifurcation in the regulatory system that drives the process, and that the clock-like oscillations of the embryo are built upon a hysteretic switch with two saddle–node bifurcations. We believe that this type of reductionistic systems biology holds great promise for understanding complicated biochemical processes in simpler terms.
- Subjects
BIOLOGICAL systems; COMPLEXITY (Philosophy); FEEDBACK control systems; CELL determination; CELL cycle; OSCILLATIONS; EMBRYOLOGY; SYSTEMS biology
- Publication
FEBS Letters, 2009, Vol 583, Issue 24, p3999
- ISSN
0014-5793
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1016/j.febslet.2009.10.068