Modelling the gene expression cascade with length-dependent processes

SysMO is a European transnational funding and research initiative on "Systems Biology of Microorganisms".

The goal pursued by SysMO was to record and describe the dynamic molecular processes going on in unicellular microorganisms in a comprehensive way and to present these processes in the form of computerized mathematical models.

Systems biology will raise biomedical and biotechnological research to a new quality level and contribute markedly to progress in understanding. Pooling European research ...

The SilicoTryp project aims at the creation of a “Silicon Trypanosome”, a comprehensive, experiment-based, multi-scale mathematical model of trypanosome physiology. Trypanosomes are blood-stream parasites transmitted by tsetse flies; they cause African sleeping sickness in humans and livestock. Currently available drugs have severe side effects, and the parasites are rapidly developing resistance. In this project, we collect a wide range of new experimental data on the parasite in its various ...

Aim: To provide quantitative data that will allow modeling of gene expression for all enzymes of redox metabolism and the pentose phosphate pathway. Modeling will be used to predict enzyme levels based on the integration of an RNA degradation model with translation and protein degradation rates.

Plan: The amounts of a protein in a cell can be determined by the rates of transcription, mRNA processing, translation, mRNA turnover and protein degradation. In trypanosomes analysis is simpler because ...

Since over 40 enzymes will be investigated for their mRNA abundance, processing, and degradation kinetics, the less tedious and more accurate Next Generation Sequencing of the entire mRNA repertoire of the cell is employed. To optimise the proportion of useful sequence, while including RNA fragments that are products of of degradation, rRNA is depleted using the eukaryotic Ribominus kit (Ambion). Two biological replicates are treated with Sinefungin and Actinomycin D to inhibit RNA processing and ...

This files contains the parameter values, life-times, half-lives and errors associated with modeling the decay of the transcriptome, based on 3 models described in Deneke et al. "Complex degradation processes lead to non-exponential decay patters and age-dependent decay rates of messenger RNA". PLoS One. 2013;8(2):e55442