MCB 572

MCB572 Cell Regulation- Modes and Features- An Ad hoc List Modes of regulation

    In this class we are striving to always strive to keep a Big Picture in view.
    We try to extract general principles from all the details.

    We will NOT cover thousands of minute, forgettable details.
    We will try and uncover a few underlying principles.

Pathway Features:

  • + and -
  • Feedback
  • Networks

 

1. Multiple Steps
   - coordinate multiple input and outputs?
   - Signal amplification"all or none" decision
   - achieve sigmoidal dose-response curve?
2. Thresholds - prevent signaling from background (negative regulators on positive steps)
3. "Redundancy" overlapping gene functions
4. Steady state systems: not in equilibrium
5. Recovery vs. Adaptation- turning pathways off
6. Ramification
7. Checkpoints- ordering events (more of a development issue)
8. Cross-talk (undesirable) & connectedness (desirable) Insulation between pathways
9. Timing- kinetic proof reading
10. Irreversibility
11. Contingency

Protein Features:

  1. Modules, modules, more modules
  2. Activity: consequence of activation, localization, substrate access
  3. Synthesis and degradation
  4. Post-translational modification - phosphorylation, ubiquitination, etc.
  5. Signaling by small molecules- Ca++, GTP
  6. Assembly/Disassembly- -MT, actin
  7. Protein machines - everything?
  8. Movement
  9. Achieving specificity and preventing cross talk
  10. Incremental regulation vs. all or nothing
  11. Proteins with multiple and sometimes very different functions

Evolution of Gene Networks

  1. Robustness
  2. Modularity
  3. Capacitators/Evolvability.

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