6,103 research outputs found
Predicting essential components of signal transduction networks: a dynamic model of guard cell abscisic acid signaling
Plants both lose water and take in carbon dioxide through microscopic
stomatal pores, each of which is regulated by a surrounding pair of guard
cells. During drought, the plant hormone abscisic acid (ABA) inhibits stomatal
opening and promotes stomatal closure, thereby promoting water conservation.
Here we synthesize experimental results into a consistent guard cell signal
transduction network for ABA-induced stomatal closure, and develop a dynamic
model of this process. Our model captures the regulation of more than forty
identified network components, and accords well with previous experimental
results at both the pathway and whole cell physiological level. Our analysis
reveals the novel predictions that the disruption of membrane depolarizability,
anion efflux, actin cytoskeleton reorganization, cytosolic pH increase, the
phosphatidic acid pathway or of K+ efflux through slowly activating K+ channels
at the plasma membrane lead to the strongest reduction in ABA responsiveness.
Initial experimental analysis assessing ABA-induced stomatal closure in the
presence of cytosolic pH clamp imposed by the weak acid butyrate is consistent
with model prediction. Our method can be readily applied to other biological
signaling networks to identify key regulatory components in systems where
quantitative information is limited.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figure
Self-similarity of complex networks
Complex networks have been studied extensively due to their relevance to many
real systems as diverse as the World-Wide-Web (WWW), the Internet, energy
landscapes, biological and social networks
\cite{ab-review,mendes,vespignani,newman,amaral}. A large number of real
networks are called ``scale-free'' because they show a power-law distribution
of the number of links per node \cite{ab-review,barabasi1999,faloutsos}.
However, it is widely believed that complex networks are not {\it length-scale}
invariant or self-similar. This conclusion originates from the ``small-world''
property of these networks, which implies that the number of nodes increases
exponentially with the ``diameter'' of the network
\cite{erdos,bollobas,milgram,watts}, rather than the power-law relation
expected for a self-similar structure. Nevertheless, here we present a novel
approach to the analysis of such networks, revealing that their structure is
indeed self-similar. This result is achieved by the application of a
renormalization procedure which coarse-grains the system into boxes containing
nodes within a given "size". Concurrently, we identify a power-law relation
between the number of boxes needed to cover the network and the size of the box
defining a finite self-similar exponent. These fundamental properties, which
are shown for the WWW, social, cellular and protein-protein interaction
networks, help to understand the emergence of the scale-free property in
complex networks. They suggest a common self-organization dynamics of diverse
networks at different scales into a critical state and in turn bring together
previously unrelated fields: the statistical physics of complex networks with
renormalization group, fractals and critical phenomena.Comment: 28 pages, 12 figures, more informations at http://www.jamlab.or
Transition from fractal to non-fractal scalings in growing scale-free networks
Real networks can be classified into two categories: fractal networks and
non-fractal networks. Here we introduce a unifying model for the two types of
networks. Our model network is governed by a parameter . We obtain the
topological properties of the network including the degree distribution,
average path length, diameter, fractal dimensions, and betweenness centrality
distribution, which are controlled by parameter . Interestingly, we show
that by adjusting , the networks undergo a transition from fractal to
non-fractal scalings, and exhibit a crossover from `large' to small worlds at
the same time. Our research may shed some light on understanding the evolution
and relationships of fractal and non-fractal networks.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, definitive version accepted for publication in
EPJ
Common and unique elements of the ABA-regulated transcriptome of Arabidopsis guard cells
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In the presence of drought and other desiccating stresses, plants synthesize and redistribute the phytohormone abscisic acid (ABA). ABA promotes plant water conservation by acting on specialized cells in the leaf epidermis, guard cells, which border and regulate the apertures of stomatal pores through which transpirational water loss occurs. Following ABA exposure, solute uptake into guard cells is rapidly inhibited and solute loss is promoted, resulting in inhibition of stomatal opening and promotion of stomatal closure, with consequent plant water conservation. There is a wealth of information on the guard cell signaling mechanisms underlying these rapid ABA responses. To investigate ABA regulation of gene expression in guard cells in a systematic genome-wide manner, we analyzed data from global transcriptomes of guard cells generated with Affymetrix ATH1 microarrays, and compared these results to ABA regulation of gene expression in leaves and other tissues.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The 1173 ABA-regulated genes of guard cells identified by our study share significant overlap with ABA-regulated genes of other tissues, and are associated with well-defined ABA-related promoter motifs such as ABREs and DREs. However, we also computationally identified a unique <it>cis</it>-acting motif, GTCGG, associated with ABA-induction of gene expression specifically in guard cells. In addition, approximately 300 genes showing ABA-regulation unique to this cell type were newly uncovered by our study. Within the ABA-regulated gene set of guard cells, we found that many of the genes known to encode ion transporters associated with stomatal opening are down-regulated by ABA, providing one mechanism for long-term maintenance of stomatal closure during drought. We also found examples of both negative and positive feedback in the transcriptional regulation by ABA of known ABA-signaling genes, particularly with regard to the PYR/PYL/RCAR class of soluble ABA receptors and their downstream targets, the type 2C protein phosphatases. Our data also provide evidence for cross-talk at the transcriptional level between ABA and another hormonal inhibitor of stomatal opening, methyl jasmonate.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our results engender new insights into the basic cell biology of guard cells, reveal common and unique elements of ABA-regulation of gene expression in guard cells, and set the stage for targeted biotechnological manipulations to improve plant water use efficiency.</p
Fractal Weyl law for Linux Kernel Architecture
We study the properties of spectrum and eigenstates of the Google matrix of a
directed network formed by the procedure calls in the Linux Kernel. Our results
obtained for various versions of the Linux Kernel show that the spectrum is
characterized by the fractal Weyl law established recently for systems of
quantum chaotic scattering and the Perron-Frobenius operators of dynamical
maps. The fractal Weyl exponent is found to be that
corresponds to the fractal dimension of the network . The
eigenmodes of the Google matrix of Linux Kernel are localized on certain
principal nodes. We argue that the fractal Weyl law should be generic for
directed networks with the fractal dimension .Comment: RevTex 6 pages, 7 figs, linked to arXiv:1003.5455[cs.SE]. Research at
http://www.quantware.ups-tlse.fr/, Improved version, changed forma
Homeomorphic Embedding for Online Termination of Symbolic Methods
Well-quasi orders in general, and homeomorphic embedding in particular, have gained popularity to ensure the termination of techniques for program analysis, specialisation, transformation, and verification. In this paper we survey and discuss this use of homeomorphic embedding and clarify the advantages of such an approach over one using well-founded orders. We also discuss various extensions of the homeomorphic embedding relation. We conclude with a study of homeomorphic embedding in the context of metaprogramming, presenting some new (positive and negative) results and open problems
Uncovering the overlapping community structure of complex networks in nature and society
Many complex systems in nature and society can be described in terms of
networks capturing the intricate web of connections among the units they are
made of. A key question is how to interpret the global organization of such
networks as the coexistence of their structural subunits (communities)
associated with more highly interconnected parts. Identifying these a priori
unknown building blocks (such as functionally related proteins, industrial
sectors and groups of people) is crucial to the understanding of the structural
and functional properties of networks. The existing deterministic methods used
for large networks find separated communities, whereas most of the actual
networks are made of highly overlapping cohesive groups of nodes. Here we
introduce an approach to analysing the main statistical features of the
interwoven sets of overlapping communities that makes a step towards uncovering
the modular structure of complex systems. After defining a set of new
characteristic quantities for the statistics of communities, we apply an
efficient technique for exploring overlapping communities on a large scale. We
find that overlaps are significant, and the distributions we introduce reveal
universal features of networks. Our studies of collaboration, word-association
and protein interaction graphs show that the web of communities has non-trivial
correlations and specific scaling properties.Comment: The free academic research software, CFinder, used for the
publication is available at the website of the publication:
http://angel.elte.hu/clusterin
Network Physiology reveals relations between network topology and physiological function
The human organism is an integrated network where complex physiologic
systems, each with its own regulatory mechanisms, continuously interact, and
where failure of one system can trigger a breakdown of the entire network.
Identifying and quantifying dynamical networks of diverse systems with
different types of interactions is a challenge. Here, we develop a framework to
probe interactions among diverse systems, and we identify a physiologic
network. We find that each physiologic state is characterized by a specific
network structure, demonstrating a robust interplay between network topology
and function. Across physiologic states the network undergoes topological
transitions associated with fast reorganization of physiologic interactions on
time scales of a few minutes, indicating high network flexibility in response
to perturbations. The proposed system-wide integrative approach may facilitate
the development of a new field, Network Physiology.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figure
Boolean modeling of transcriptome data reveals novel modes of heterotrimeric G-protein action
Classical mechanisms of heterotrimeric G-protein signaling are observed to function in regulation of the transcriptome. Conversely, many theoretical regulatory modes of the G-protein are not manifested in the transcriptomes we investigate.A new mechanism of G-protein signaling is revealed, in which the β subunit regulates gene expression identically in the presence or absence of the α subunit.We find evidence of cross-talk between G-protein-mediated and hormone-mediated transcriptional regulation.We find evidence of system specificity in G-protein signaling
Role of fractal dimension in random walks on scale-free networks
Fractal dimension is central to understanding dynamical processes occurring
on networks; however, the relation between fractal dimension and random walks
on fractal scale-free networks has been rarely addressed, despite the fact that
such networks are ubiquitous in real-life world. In this paper, we study the
trapping problem on two families of networks. The first is deterministic, often
called -flowers; the other is random, which is a combination of
-flower and -flower and thus called hybrid networks. The two
network families display rich behavior as observed in various real systems, as
well as some unique topological properties not shared by other networks. We
derive analytically the average trapping time for random walks on both the
-flowers and the hybrid networks with an immobile trap positioned at an
initial node, i.e., a hub node with the highest degree in the networks. Based
on these analytical formulae, we show how the average trapping time scales with
the network size. Comparing the obtained results, we further uncover that
fractal dimension plays a decisive role in the behavior of average trapping
time on fractal scale-free networks, i.e., the average trapping time decreases
with an increasing fractal dimension.Comment: Definitive version published in European Physical Journal
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