Networks and circuits in cell regulation

Large-scale “omics” data are often represented as networks of interacting components, but such representation is inherently static and, as such, cannot provide a realistic picture of the temporal dynamics of complex cellular functions. These difficulties suggest moving to a modeling strategy that explicitly takes into account both the wiring of the components and the task they perform. From an engineering perspective, this problem resembles that of “circuit analysis”. In this paper, we focus on a limited but relevant biological circuit, the G1 to S transition in yeast cell cycle, and investigate both the network representation and the corresponding circuit described by a mathematical model, by means of a wide range of numerical simulation analysis. Reliable predictions of system-level properties are achieved and the parameters that mostly affect these properties are found out.