In article <5lskpi$oku at mserv1.dl.ac.uk>, m.d.brand at bioc.cam.ac.uk
says...
>>For example, how could we usefully apply control and regulation
>analysis to the description of the regulation of RNA production by a
>set of transcription factors, to quantify the regulation of gene
>expression and to persuade the molecular biologists that what we do
>is worthwhile. What do people think would be the best system to work
>on to allow significant and interesting experimental results?
Martin,
I think this is a very interesting area that would gain a lot from
being analysed quantitatively. This migh be quite hard to do, but that
should not stop us... Personally I am rather interested in modelling
gene expression but this requires kinetic data for the transcription
events which are not easy to find. I haven't yet looked too hard, but
so far I have found nothing.
In terms of determining the control distribution experimentally I
guess this needs a few specific inhibitors. Maybe one could start with
generic inhibitors of DNA transcriptases and then search for others
specific to a single gene of interest. Another "front of attack" might
be modulation of the mRNA stability.
Any molecular biologists out there who know how to do this, please
let yourselves known!
--
Pedro Mendes
home: pedro at enzyme.demon.co.uk , work: prm at aber.ac.uk | Aberystwyth,
http://www.enzyme.demon.co.uk/pedro.html | Wales, U.K.
Author of GEPASI, a biochemical kinetics simulator | European Union
http://gepasi.dbs.aber.ac.uk/softw/Gepasi.html
