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Topology of transcriptional regulatory networks: testing and improving.

ABSTRACT: With the increasing amount and complexity of data generated in biological experiments it is becoming necessary to enhance the performance and applicability of existing statistical data analysis methods. This enhancement is needed for the hidden biological information to be better resolved and better interpreted. Towards that aim, systematic incorporation of prior information in biological data analysis has been a challenging problem for systems biology. Several methods have been proposed to integrate data from different levels of information most notably from metabolomics, transcriptomics and proteomics and thus enhance biological interpretation. However, in order not to be misled by the dominance of incorrect prior information in the analysis, being able to discriminate between competing prior information is required. In this study, we show that discrimination between topological information in competing transcriptional regulatory network models is possible solely based on experimental data. We use network topology dependent decomposition of synthetic gene expression data to introduce both local and global discriminating measures. The measures indicate how well the gene expression data can be explained under the constraints of the model network topology and how much each regulatory connection in the model refuses to be constrained. Application of the method to the cell cycle regulatory network of Saccharomyces cerevisiae leads to the prediction of novel regulatory interactions, improving the information content of the hypothesized network model.

SUBMITTER: Hasdemir D

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3402518 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Topology of transcriptional regulatory networks: testing and improving.

Hasdemir Dicle D Smits Gertien J GJ Westerhuis Johan A JA Smilde Age K AK

PloS one 20120723 7

With the increasing amount and complexity of data generated in biological experiments it is becoming necessary to enhance the performance and applicability of existing statistical data analysis methods. This enhancement is needed for the hidden biological information to be better resolved and better interpreted. Towards that aim, systematic incorporation of prior information in biological data analysis has been a challenging problem for systems biology. Several methods have been proposed to inte ...[more]

PMID: 22844399

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Project description:There is a strong need for computational frameworks that integrate different biological processes and data-types to unravel cellular regulation. Current efforts to reconstruct transcriptional regulatory networks (TRNs) focus primarily on proximal data such as gene co-expression and transcription factor (TF) binding. While such approaches enable rapid reconstruction of TRNs, the overwhelming combinatorics of possible networks limits identification of mechanistic regulatory interactions. Utilizing growth phenotypes and systems-level constraints to inform regulatory network reconstruction is an unmet challenge. We present our approach Gene Expression and Metabolism Integrated for Network Inference (GEMINI) that links a compendium of candidate regulatory interactions with the metabolic network to predict their systems-level effect on growth phenotypes. We then compare predictions with experimental phenotype data to select phenotype-consistent regulatory interactions. GEMINI makes use of the observation that only a small fraction of regulatory network states are compatible with a viable metabolic network, and outputs a regulatory network that is simultaneously consistent with the input genome-scale metabolic network model, gene expression data, and TF knockout phenotypes. GEMINI preferentially recalls gold-standard interactions (p-value = 10(-172)), significantly better than using gene expression alone. We applied GEMINI to create an integrated metabolic-regulatory network model for Saccharomyces cerevisiae involving 25,000 regulatory interactions controlling 1597 metabolic reactions. The model quantitatively predicts TF knockout phenotypes in new conditions (p-value = 10(-14)) and revealed potential condition-specific regulatory mechanisms. Our results suggest that a metabolic constraint-based approach can be successfully used to help reconstruct TRNs from high-throughput data, and highlights the potential of using a biochemically-detailed mechanistic framework to integrate and reconcile inconsistencies across different data-types. The algorithm and associated data are available at https://sourceforge.net/projects/gemini-data/

Project description:Organisms regulate gene expression in response to the environment to coordinate metabolic reactions. Clostridium thermocellum expresses enzymes for both lignocellulose solubilization and its fermentation to produce ethanol. One LacI regulator termed GlyR3 in C. thermocellum ATCC 27405 was previously identified as a repressor of neighboring genes with repression relieved by laminaribiose (a ?-1,3 disaccharide). To better understand the three C. thermocellum LacI regulons, deletion mutants were constructed using the genetically tractable DSM1313 strain. DSM1313 lacI genes Clo1313_2023, Clo1313_0089, and Clo1313_0396 encode homologs of GlyR1, GlyR2, and GlyR3 from strain ATCC 27405, respectively. Growth on cellobiose or pretreated switchgrass was unaffected by any of the gene deletions under controlled-pH fermentations. Global gene expression patterns from time course analyses identified glycoside hydrolase genes encoding hemicellulases, including cellulosomal enzymes, that were highly upregulated (5- to 100-fold) in the absence of each LacI regulator, suggesting that these were repressed under wild-type conditions and that relatively few genes were controlled by each regulator under the conditions tested. Clo1313_2022, encoding lichenase enzyme LicB, was derepressed in a ?glyR1 strain. Higher expression of Clo1313_1398, which encodes the Man5A mannanase, was observed in a ?glyR2 strain, and ?-mannobiose was identified as a probable inducer for GlyR2-regulated genes. For the ?glyR3 strain, upregulation of the two genes adjacent to glyR3 in the celC-glyR3-licA operon was consistent with earlier studies. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays have confirmed LacI transcription factor binding to specific regions of gene promoters.IMPORTANCE Understanding C. thermocellum gene regulation is of importance for improved fundamental knowledge of this industrially relevant bacterium. Most LacI transcription factors regulate local genomic regions; however, a small number of those genes encode global regulatory proteins with extensive regulons. This study indicates that there are small specific C. thermocellum LacI regulons. The identification of LacI repressor activity for hemicellulase gene expression is a key result of this work and will add to the small body of existing literature on the area of gene regulation in C. thermocellum.

Project description:BackgroundComparative genomics methods enable the reconstruction of bacterial regulatory networks using available experimental data. In spite of their potential for accelerating research into the composition and evolution of bacterial regulons, few comparative genomics suites have been developed for the automated analysis of these regulatory systems. Available solutions typically rely on precomputed databases for operon and ortholog predictions, limiting the scope of analyses to processed complete genomes, and several key issues such as the transfer of experimental information or the integration of regulatory information in a probabilistic setting remain largely unaddressed.ResultsHere we introduce CGB, a flexible platform for comparative genomics of prokaryotic regulons. CGB has few external dependencies and enables fully customized analyses of newly available genome data. The platform automates the merging of experimental information and uses a gene-centered, Bayesian framework to generate and integrate easily interpretable results. We demonstrate its flexibility and power by analyzing the evolution of type III secretion system regulation in pathogenic Proteobacteria and by characterizing the SOS regulon of a new bacterial phylum, the Balneolaeota.ConclusionsOur results demonstrate the applicability of the CGB pipeline in multiple settings. CGB's ability to automatically integrate experimental information from multiple sources and use complete and draft genomic data, coupled with its non-reliance on precomputed databases and its easily interpretable display of gene-centered posterior probabilities of regulation provide users with an unprecedented level of flexibility in launching comparative genomics analyses of prokaryotic transcriptional regulatory networks. The analyses of type III secretion and SOS response regulatory networks illustrate instances of convergent and divergent evolution of these regulatory systems, showcasing the power of formal ancestral state reconstruction at inferring the evolutionary history of regulatory networks.

Dataset Information

Topology of transcriptional regulatory networks: testing and improving.

Publications

Topology of transcriptional regulatory networks: testing and improving.

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