Finding missing interactions of the Arabidopsis thaliana root stem cell niche gene regulatory network

AbstractOver the last few decades, the Arabidopsis thaliana root stem cell niche has become a model system for the study of plant development and the stem cell niche. Currently, many of the molecular mechanisms involved in root stem cell niche maintenance and development have been described. A few y...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Eugenio eAzpeitia, Nathan eWeinstein, Mariana eBenítez, Luis eMendoza, Elena R. Alvarez-Buylla
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2013-04-01
Series:Frontiers in Plant Science
Subjects:
Online Access:http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpls.2013.00110/full
_version_ 1819241327185887232
author Eugenio eAzpeitia
Eugenio eAzpeitia
Nathan eWeinstein
Mariana eBenítez
Mariana eBenítez
Luis eMendoza
Elena R. Alvarez-Buylla
Elena R. Alvarez-Buylla
author_facet Eugenio eAzpeitia
Eugenio eAzpeitia
Nathan eWeinstein
Mariana eBenítez
Mariana eBenítez
Luis eMendoza
Elena R. Alvarez-Buylla
Elena R. Alvarez-Buylla
author_sort Eugenio eAzpeitia
collection DOAJ
description AbstractOver the last few decades, the Arabidopsis thaliana root stem cell niche has become a model system for the study of plant development and the stem cell niche. Currently, many of the molecular mechanisms involved in root stem cell niche maintenance and development have been described. A few years ago, we published a gene regulatory network model integrating this information. This model suggested that there were missing components or interactions. Upon updating the model, the observed stable gene configurations of the root stem cell niche could not be recovered, indicating that there are additional missing components or interactions in the model. In fact, due to the lack of experimental data, gene regulatory networks inferred from published data are usually incomplete. However, predicting the location and nature of the missing data is a not trivial task. Here, we propose a set of procedures for detecting and predicting missing interactions in Boolean networks. We used these procedures to predict putative missing interactions in the A. thaliana root stem cell niche network model. Using our approach, we identified three necessary interactions to recover the reported gene activation configurations that have been experimentally uncovered for the different cell types within the root stem cell niche: 1) a regulation of PHABULOSA to restrict its expression domain to the vascular cells, 2) a self-regulation of WOX5, possibly by an indirect mechanism through the auxin signalling pathway and 3) a positive regulation of JACKDAW by MAGPIE. The procedures proposed here greatly reduce the number of possible Boolean functions that are biologically meaningful and experimentally testable and that do not contradict previous data. We believe that these procedures can be used on any Boolean network. However, because the procedures were designed for the specific case of the root stem cell niche, formal demonstrations of the procedures should be shown in future efforts.
first_indexed 2024-12-23T14:22:09Z
format Article
id doaj.art-798fc4d3a2f947bd823f970550c51da4
institution Directory Open Access Journal
issn 1664-462X
language English
last_indexed 2024-12-23T14:22:09Z
publishDate 2013-04-01
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
record_format Article
series Frontiers in Plant Science
spelling doaj.art-798fc4d3a2f947bd823f970550c51da42022-12-21T17:43:46ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Plant Science1664-462X2013-04-01410.3389/fpls.2013.0011047644Finding missing interactions of the Arabidopsis thaliana root stem cell niche gene regulatory networkEugenio eAzpeitia0Eugenio eAzpeitia1Nathan eWeinstein2Mariana eBenítez3Mariana eBenítez4Luis eMendoza5Elena R. Alvarez-Buylla6Elena R. Alvarez-Buylla7Centro de Ciencias de la ComplejidadInstituto de EcologíaInstituto de Investigaciones BiomédicasInstituto de EcologíaCentro de Ciencias de la ComplejidadInstituto de Investigaciones BiomédicasCentro de Ciencias de la ComplejidadInstituto de EcologíaAbstractOver the last few decades, the Arabidopsis thaliana root stem cell niche has become a model system for the study of plant development and the stem cell niche. Currently, many of the molecular mechanisms involved in root stem cell niche maintenance and development have been described. A few years ago, we published a gene regulatory network model integrating this information. This model suggested that there were missing components or interactions. Upon updating the model, the observed stable gene configurations of the root stem cell niche could not be recovered, indicating that there are additional missing components or interactions in the model. In fact, due to the lack of experimental data, gene regulatory networks inferred from published data are usually incomplete. However, predicting the location and nature of the missing data is a not trivial task. Here, we propose a set of procedures for detecting and predicting missing interactions in Boolean networks. We used these procedures to predict putative missing interactions in the A. thaliana root stem cell niche network model. Using our approach, we identified three necessary interactions to recover the reported gene activation configurations that have been experimentally uncovered for the different cell types within the root stem cell niche: 1) a regulation of PHABULOSA to restrict its expression domain to the vascular cells, 2) a self-regulation of WOX5, possibly by an indirect mechanism through the auxin signalling pathway and 3) a positive regulation of JACKDAW by MAGPIE. The procedures proposed here greatly reduce the number of possible Boolean functions that are biologically meaningful and experimentally testable and that do not contradict previous data. We believe that these procedures can be used on any Boolean network. However, because the procedures were designed for the specific case of the root stem cell niche, formal demonstrations of the procedures should be shown in future efforts.http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpls.2013.00110/fullGene Regulatory NetworksPredictive ModelingBoolean models and functionsroot stem-cell nicheincomplete networksArabidopsis thaliana.
spellingShingle Eugenio eAzpeitia
Eugenio eAzpeitia
Nathan eWeinstein
Mariana eBenítez
Mariana eBenítez
Luis eMendoza
Elena R. Alvarez-Buylla
Elena R. Alvarez-Buylla
Finding missing interactions of the Arabidopsis thaliana root stem cell niche gene regulatory network
Frontiers in Plant Science
Gene Regulatory Networks
Predictive Modeling
Boolean models and functions
root stem-cell niche
incomplete networks
Arabidopsis thaliana.
title Finding missing interactions of the Arabidopsis thaliana root stem cell niche gene regulatory network
title_full Finding missing interactions of the Arabidopsis thaliana root stem cell niche gene regulatory network
title_fullStr Finding missing interactions of the Arabidopsis thaliana root stem cell niche gene regulatory network
title_full_unstemmed Finding missing interactions of the Arabidopsis thaliana root stem cell niche gene regulatory network
title_short Finding missing interactions of the Arabidopsis thaliana root stem cell niche gene regulatory network
title_sort finding missing interactions of the arabidopsis thaliana root stem cell niche gene regulatory network
topic Gene Regulatory Networks
Predictive Modeling
Boolean models and functions
root stem-cell niche
incomplete networks
Arabidopsis thaliana.
url http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpls.2013.00110/full
work_keys_str_mv AT eugenioeazpeitia findingmissinginteractionsofthearabidopsisthalianarootstemcellnichegeneregulatorynetwork
AT eugenioeazpeitia findingmissinginteractionsofthearabidopsisthalianarootstemcellnichegeneregulatorynetwork
AT nathaneweinstein findingmissinginteractionsofthearabidopsisthalianarootstemcellnichegeneregulatorynetwork
AT marianaebenitez findingmissinginteractionsofthearabidopsisthalianarootstemcellnichegeneregulatorynetwork
AT marianaebenitez findingmissinginteractionsofthearabidopsisthalianarootstemcellnichegeneregulatorynetwork
AT luisemendoza findingmissinginteractionsofthearabidopsisthalianarootstemcellnichegeneregulatorynetwork
AT elenaralvarezbuylla findingmissinginteractionsofthearabidopsisthalianarootstemcellnichegeneregulatorynetwork
AT elenaralvarezbuylla findingmissinginteractionsofthearabidopsisthalianarootstemcellnichegeneregulatorynetwork