Detection of attractors of large Boolean networks via exhaustive enumeration of appropriate subspaces of the state space.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Boolean models are increasingly used to study biological signaling networks. In a Boolean network, nodes represent biological entities such as genes, proteins or protein complexes, and edges indicate activating or inhibiting influences of one node towards another. Depending on the input of activators or inhibitors, Boolean networks categorize nodes as either active or inactive. The formalism is appealing because for many biological relationships, we lack quantitative information about binding constants or kinetic parameters and can only rely on a qualitative description of the type "A activates (or inhibits) B". A central aim of Boolean network analysis is the determination of attractors (steady states and/or cycles). This problem is known to be computationally complex,

SUBMITTER: Berntenis N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3882777 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature