Modelling and Analysis of Biochemical Signalling Pathway Cross-talk

Robin Donaldson
(University of Glasgow)
Muffy Calder
(University of Glasgow)

Signalling pathways are abstractions that help life scientists structure the coordination of cellular activity. Cross-talk between pathways accounts for many of the complex behaviours exhibited by signalling pathways and is often critical in producing the correct signal-response relationship. Formal models of signalling pathways and cross-talk in particular can aid understanding and drive experimentation. We define an approach to modelling based on the concept that a pathway is the (synchronising) parallel composition of instances of generic modules (with internal and external labels). Pathways are then composed by (synchronising) parallel composition and renaming; different types of cross-talk result from different combinations of synchronisation and renaming. We define a number of generic modules in PRISM and five types of cross-talk: signal flow, substrate availability, receptor function, gene expression and intracellular communication. We show that Continuous Stochastic Logic properties can both detect and distinguish the types of cross-talk. The approach is illustrated with small examples and an analysis of the cross-talk between the TGF-b/BMP, WNT and MAPK pathways.

In Emanuela Merelli and Paola Quaglia: Proceedings Third Workshop From Biology To Concurrency and back (FBTC 2010), Paphos, Cyprus, 27th March 2010, Electronic Proceedings in Theoretical Computer Science 19, pp. 40–54.
Published: 26th February 2010.

ArXived at: https://dx.doi.org/10.4204/EPTCS.19.3 bibtex PDF

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