Molecular systems biology

Combined experimental and computational analysis of DNA damage signaling reveals context-dependent roles for Erk in apoptosis and G1/S arrest after genotoxic stress.

Publication Date: 2012 PMID: 22294094
Authors: Tentner, A. R. - Lee, M. J. - Ostheimer, G. J. - Samson, L. D. - Lauffenburger, D. A. - Yaffe, M. B.
Journal: Mol Syst Biol

Following DNA damage, cells display complex multi-pathway signaling dynamics that connect cell-cycle arrest and DNA repair in G1, S, or G2/M phase with phenotypic fate decisions made between survival, cell-cycle re-entry and proliferation, permanent cell-cycle arrest, or cell death. How these phenotypic fate decisions are determined remains poorly understood, but must derive from integrating genotoxic stress signals together with inputs from the local microenvironment. To investigate this in a systematic manner, we undertook a quantitative time-resolved cell signaling and phenotypic response study in U2OS cells receiving doxorubicin-induced DNA damage in the presence or absence of TNFalpha co-treatment; we measured key nodes in a broad set of DNA damage signal transduction pathways along with apoptotic death and cell-cycle regulatory responses. Two relational modeling approaches were then used to identify network-level relationships between signals and cell phenotypic events: a partial least squares regression approach and a complementary new technique which we term 'time-interval stepwise regression.' Taken together, the results from these analysis methods revealed complex, cytokine-modulated inter-relationships among multiple signaling pathways following DNA damage, and identified an unexpected context-dependent role for Erk in both G1/S arrest and apoptotic cell death following treatment with this commonly used clinical chemotherapeutic drug.

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Competing pathways control host resistance to virus via tRNA modification and programmed ribosomal frameshifting.

Publication Date: 2012 PMID: 22294093
Authors: Maynard, N. D. - Macklin, D. N. - Kirkegaard, K. - Covert, M. W.
Journal: Mol Syst Biol

Viral infection depends on a complex interplay between host and viral factors. Here, we link host susceptibility to viral infection to a network encompassing sulfur metabolism, tRNA modification, competitive binding, and programmed ribosomal frameshifting (PRF). We first demonstrate that the iron-sulfur cluster biosynthesis pathway in Escherichia coli exerts a protective effect during lambda phage infection, while a tRNA thiolation pathway enhances viral infection. We show that tRNA(Lys) uridine 34 modification inhibits PRF to influence the ratio of lambda phage proteins gpG and gpGT. Computational modeling and experiments suggest that the role of the iron-sulfur cluster biosynthesis pathway in infection is indirect, via competitive binding of the shared sulfur donor IscS. Based on the universality of many key components of this network, in both the host and the virus, we anticipate that these findings may have broad relevance to understanding other infections, including viral infection of humans.

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Widespread translational control contributes to the regulation of Arabidopsis photomorphogenesis.

Publication Date: 2012 PMID: 22252389
Authors: Liu, M. J. - Wu, S. H. - Chen, H. M. - Wu, S. H.
Journal: Mol Syst Biol

Environmental 'light' has a vital role in regulating plant growth and development. Transcriptomic profiling has been widely used to examine how light regulates mRNA levels on a genome-wide scale, but the global role of translational regulation in the response to light is unknown. Through a transcriptomic comparison of steady-state and polysome-bound mRNAs, we reveal a clear impact of translational control on thousands of genes, in addition to transcriptomic changes, during photomorphogenesis. Genes encoding ribosomal protein are preferentially regulated at the translational level, which possibly contributes to the enhanced translation efficiency. We also reveal that mRNAs regulated at the translational level share characteristics of longer half-lives and shorter cDNA length, and that transcripts with a cis-element, TAGGGTTT, in their 5' untranslated region have higher translatability. We report a previously neglected aspect of gene expression regulation during Arabidopsis photomorphogenesis. The identities and molecular signatures associated with mRNAs regulated at the translational level also offer new directions for mechanistic studies of light-triggered translational enhancement in Arabidopsis.

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Differential network biology.

Publication Date: 2012 PMID: 22252388
Authors: Ideker, T. - Krogan, N. J.
Journal: Mol Syst Biol

Protein and genetic interaction maps can reveal the overall physical and functional landscape of a biological system. To date, these interaction maps have typically been generated under a single condition, even though biological systems undergo differential change that is dependent on environment, tissue type, disease state, development or speciation. Several recent interaction mapping studies have demonstrated the power of differential analysis for elucidating fundamental biological responses, revealing that the architecture of an interactome can be massively re-wired during a cellular or adaptive response. Here, we review the technological developments and experimental designs that have enabled differential network mapping at very large scales and highlight biological insight that has been derived from this type of analysis. We argue that differential network mapping, which allows for the interrogation of previously unexplored interaction spaces, will become a standard mode of network analysis in the future, just as differential gene expression and protein phosphorylation studies are already pervasive in genomic and proteomic analysis.

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Bistability in feedback circuits as a byproduct of evolution of evolvability.

Publication Date: 2012 PMID: 22252387
Authors: Kuwahara, H. - Soyer, O. S.
Journal: Mol Syst Biol

Noisy bistable dynamics in gene regulation can underlie stochastic switching and is demonstrated to be beneficial under fluctuating environments. It is not known, however, if fluctuating selection alone can result in bistable dynamics. Using a stochastic model of simple feedback networks, we apply fluctuating selection on gene expression and run in silico evolutionary simulations. We find that independent of the specific nature of the environment-fitness relationship, the main outcome of fluctuating selection is the evolution of increased evolvability in the network; system parameters evolve toward a nonlinear regime where phenotypic diversity is increased and small changes in genotype cause large changes in expression level. In the presence of noise, the evolution of increased nonlinearity results in the emergence and maintenance of bistability. Our results provide the first direct evidence that bistability and stochastic switching in a gene regulatory network can emerge as a mechanism to cope with fluctuating environments. They strongly suggest that such emergence occurs as a byproduct of evolution of evolvability and exploitation of noise by evolution.

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