TY - JOUR
T1 - Comparative analysis of the transcription-factor gene regulatory networks of E. coli and S. cerevisiae
AU - Guzmán-Vargas, Lev
AU - Santillán, Moisés
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was partially supported by Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tec-nologia (Conacyt-project 49128-F-26020), COFAA-IPN, and EDI-IPN, México.
PY - 2008/1/31
Y1 - 2008/1/31
N2 - Background: The regulatory interactions between transcription factors (TF) and regulated genes (RG) in a species genome can be lumped together in a single directed graph. The TF's and RG's conform the nodes of this graph, while links are drawn whenever a transcription factor regulates a gene's expression. Projections onto TF nodes can be constructed by linking every two nodes regulating a common gene. Similarly, projections onto RG nodes can be made by linking every two regulated genes sharing at least one common regulator. Recent studies of the connectivity pattern in the transcription-factor regulatory network of many organisms have revealed some interesting properties. However, the differences between TF and RG nodes have not been widely explored. Results: After analysing the RG and TF projections of the transcription-factor gene regulatory networks of Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, we found several common characteristic as well as some noticeable differences. To better understand these differences, we compared the properties of the E. coli and S. cerevisiae RG- and TF-projected networks with those of the corresponding projections built from randomized versions of the original bipartite networks. These last results indicate that the observed differences are mostly due to the very different ratios of TF to RG counts of the E. coli and S. cerevisiae bipartite networks, rather than to their having different connectivity patterns. Conclusion: Since E. coli is a prokaryotic organism while S. cerevisiae is eukaryotic, there are important differences between them concerning processing of mRNA before translation, DNA packing, amount of junk DNA, and gene regulation. From the results in this paper we conclude that the most important effect such differences have had on the development of the corresponding transcription-factor gene regulatory networks is their very different ratios of TF to RG numbers. This ratio is more than three times larger in S. cerevisiae than in E. coli. Our calculations reveal that, both species' gene regulatory networks have very similar connectivity patterns, despite their very different TF to RG ratios. An this, to our consideration, indicates that the structure of both networks is optimal from an evolutionary viewpoint.
AB - Background: The regulatory interactions between transcription factors (TF) and regulated genes (RG) in a species genome can be lumped together in a single directed graph. The TF's and RG's conform the nodes of this graph, while links are drawn whenever a transcription factor regulates a gene's expression. Projections onto TF nodes can be constructed by linking every two nodes regulating a common gene. Similarly, projections onto RG nodes can be made by linking every two regulated genes sharing at least one common regulator. Recent studies of the connectivity pattern in the transcription-factor regulatory network of many organisms have revealed some interesting properties. However, the differences between TF and RG nodes have not been widely explored. Results: After analysing the RG and TF projections of the transcription-factor gene regulatory networks of Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, we found several common characteristic as well as some noticeable differences. To better understand these differences, we compared the properties of the E. coli and S. cerevisiae RG- and TF-projected networks with those of the corresponding projections built from randomized versions of the original bipartite networks. These last results indicate that the observed differences are mostly due to the very different ratios of TF to RG counts of the E. coli and S. cerevisiae bipartite networks, rather than to their having different connectivity patterns. Conclusion: Since E. coli is a prokaryotic organism while S. cerevisiae is eukaryotic, there are important differences between them concerning processing of mRNA before translation, DNA packing, amount of junk DNA, and gene regulation. From the results in this paper we conclude that the most important effect such differences have had on the development of the corresponding transcription-factor gene regulatory networks is their very different ratios of TF to RG numbers. This ratio is more than three times larger in S. cerevisiae than in E. coli. Our calculations reveal that, both species' gene regulatory networks have very similar connectivity patterns, despite their very different TF to RG ratios. An this, to our consideration, indicates that the structure of both networks is optimal from an evolutionary viewpoint.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=41049083886&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1186/1752-0509-2-13
DO - 10.1186/1752-0509-2-13
M3 - Artículo
SN - 1752-0509
VL - 2
JO - BMC Systems Biology
JF - BMC Systems Biology
M1 - 13
ER -