Molecular Interaction Maps, also known as MIMs, is a graphic notation to depict cellular and molecular interactions. It was created by Kurt W. Kohn in 1999. [1] The MIM convention is capable of unambiguous representation of networks containing multi-protein complexes, protein modifications, and enzymes that are substrates of other enzymes. This graphical representation makes it possible to view all of the many interactions in which a given molecule may be involved, and it can portray competing interactions, which are common in bioregulatory networks. In order to facilitate linkage to databases, each molecular species is represented only once in a diagram. The MIM notation forms the basis of, and further development of the MIM notation is coordinated with, the Systems Biology Graphical Notation (SBGN) consortium, an international effort to standardize diagrams depicting biochemical and cellular processes studied in systems biology. An update to the notation was published in 2006. [2]
MIM diagrams are typically accompanied by a set of citations and comments related to scientific publications describing the interactions within the diagram. Additionally, the diagrams are accompanied by a listing associating elements on the diagram to commonly used identifiers such as genes name as described by HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee.
In molecular biology and genetics, transcriptional regulation is the means by which a cell regulates the conversion of DNA to RNA (transcription), thereby orchestrating gene activity. A single gene can be regulated in a range of ways, from altering the number of copies of RNA that are transcribed, to the temporal control of when the gene is transcribed. This control allows the cell or organism to respond to a variety of intra- and extracellular signals and thus mount a response. Some examples of this include producing the mRNA that encode enzymes to adapt to a change in a food source, producing the gene products involved in cell cycle specific activities, and producing the gene products responsible for cellular differentiation in multicellular eukaryotes, as studied in evolutionary developmental biology.
A phosphatase is an enzyme that uses water to cleave a phosphoric acid monoester into a phosphate ion and an alcohol. Because a phosphatase enzyme catalyzes the hydrolysis of its substrate, it is a subcategory of hydrolases. Phosphatase enzymes are essential to many biological functions, because phosphorylation and dephosphorylation serve diverse roles in cellular regulation and signaling. Whereas phosphatases remove phosphate groups from molecules, kinases catalyze the transfer of phosphate groups to molecules from ATP. Together, kinases and phosphatases direct a form of post-translational modification that is essential to the cell's regulatory network. Phosphatase enzymes are not to be confused with phosphorylase enzymes, which catalyze the transfer of a phosphate group from hydrogen phosphate to an acceptor. Due to their prevalence in cellular regulation, phosphatases are an area of interest for pharmaceutical research.
KEGG is a collection of databases dealing with genomes, biological pathways, diseases, drugs, and chemical substances. KEGG is utilized for bioinformatics research and education, including data analysis in genomics, metagenomics, metabolomics and other omics studies, modeling and simulation in systems biology, and translational research in drug development.
Reactome is a free online database of biological pathways. There are several Reactomes that concentrate on specific organisms, the largest of these is focused on human biology, the following description concentrates on the human Reactome. It is authored by expert biologists, in collaboration with Reactome editorial staff who are all PhD level biologists. Content is cross-referenced to many bioinformatics databases. The rationale behind Reactome is to visually represent biological pathways in full mechanistic detail, while making the source data available in a computationally accessible format.
Topoisomerase inhibitors are chemical compounds that block the action of topoisomerases, which are enzymes that control the changes in DNA structure by catalyzing the breaking and rejoining of the phosphodiester backbone of DNA strands during the normal cell cycle.
In enzymology, a 20-α-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (EC 1.1.1.149) is an enzyme that catalyzes the chemical reaction
Mitogen-activated protein kinase 8 is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the MAPK8 gene.
Replication protein A 70 kDa DNA-binding subunit is a protein that in humans is encoded by the RPA1 gene.
Mitogen-activated protein kinase 7 also known as MAP kinase 7 is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the MAPK7 gene.
Four and a half LIM domains protein 2 also known as FHL-2 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the FHL2 gene. LIM proteins contain a highly conserved double zinc finger motif called the LIM domain.
Activating transcription factor 5, also known as ATF5, is a protein that, in humans, is encoded by the ATF5 gene.
RNA extraction is the purification of RNA from biological samples. This procedure is complicated by the ubiquitous presence of ribonuclease enzymes in cells and tissues, which can rapidly degrade RNA. Several methods are used in molecular biology to isolate RNA from samples, the most common of these is guanidinium thiocyanate-phenol-chloroform extraction. The filter paper based lysis and elution method features high throughput capacity.
Benoit Coulombe is a Canadian scientist whose research focuses on the mechanisms by which regulated protein–protein, protein–DNA and protein–RNA interactions control the activity of RNA polymerase II, the molecular machine that synthesizes all messenger RNA (mRNA) and some small-nuclear RNA (snRNA) in eukaryotes.
The term chemoton refers to an abstract model for the fundamental unit of life introduced by Hungarian theoretical biologist Tibor Gánti. It is the oldest known computational abstract of a protocell. Gánti conceived the basic idea in 1952 and formulated the concept in 1971 in his book The Principles of Life. He surmised the chemoton as the original ancestor of all organisms, or the last universal common ancestor.
Creating a cellular model has been a particularly challenging task of systems biology and mathematical biology. It involves developing efficient algorithms, data structures, visualization and communication tools to orchestrate the integration of large quantities of biological data with the goal of computer modeling.
The Systems Biology Graphical Notation (SBGN) is a standard graphical representation intended to foster the efficient storage, exchange and reuse of information about signaling pathways, metabolic networks, and gene regulatory networks amongst communities of biochemists, biologists, and theoreticians. The system was created over several years by a community of biochemists, modelers and computer scientists.
Evolution of cells refers to the evolutionary origin and subsequent evolutionary development of cells. Cells first emerged at least 3.8 billion years ago. This was approximately 750 million years after the earth was formed.
Natural computing, also called natural computation, is a terminology introduced to encompass three classes of methods: 1) those that take inspiration from nature for the development of novel problem-solving techniques; 2) those that are based on the use of computers to synthesize natural phenomena; and 3) those that employ natural materials to compute. The main fields of research that compose these three branches are artificial neural networks, evolutionary algorithms, swarm intelligence, artificial immune systems, fractal geometry, artificial life, DNA computing, and quantum computing, among others.
Kang-Yell Choi, Ph.D. is an academic.
Michele Pagano is an Italian-American biochemist and cancer biologist best known for his work on cell cycle control and the ubiquitin-proteasome system. He is currently the chairman of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, and the Ellen and Gerald Ritter Professor of Oncology at the New York University School of Medicine. He is also an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. His laboratory has played a central role in elucidating the role of a family of enzymes, the cullin-RING ubiquitin ligases (CRLs), in mediating the proteolysis of key cellular regulators. In particular, his work has uncovered the molecular mechanisms by which CRLs control cell cycle progression, signal transduction pathways, and the DNA damage response. His work has also elucidated how the dysregulation of CRLs contributes to malignant transformation and metastasis.