Robustness of transcriptional regulation in yeast-like model boolean networks

Abstract

We investigate the dynamical properties of the transcriptional regulation of gene expression in the yeast Saccharomyces Cerevisiae within the framework of a synchronously and deterministically updated Boolean network model. With a dynamically determinant subnetwork, we explore the robustness of transcriptional regulation as a function of the type of Boolean functions used in the model that mimic the influence of regulating agents on the transcription level of a gene. We compare the results obtained for the actual yeast network with those from two different model networks, one with similar in-degree distribution as the yeast and otherwise random, and another due to Balcan et al., where the global topology of the yeast network is reproduced faithfully. We, surprisingly, find that the first set of model networks better reproduce the results found with the actual yeast network, even though the Balcan et al. model networks are structurally more similar to that of yeast.