Effects of spatial growth on gene expression dynamics and on regulatory network reconstruction

Abstract

Morphogenesis and the spatial structure of an organism have repercussions on gene expression. These effects can influence the results of regulatory network reconstruction. An integrated, flexible and extensible computational framework for modelling gene expression dynamics within spatially growing structures is developed and used as a test system for evaluating a reconstruction algorithm. With complex morphological structures, significant effects of spatial organisation on the reconstruction process are observed. The results also reveal that stronger regulatory interactions result in more frequent cases of indirect regulation, posing a challenge for accurate network reconstruction. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005.