Systems biology of signal control in yeast

描述（由申请人提供）：生物与非生物的不同之处在于它们携带存储在DNA和RNA中的信息。活细胞需要做的很多事情都需要它们将储存的信息与外部环境输入的信息整合起来。在这种情况下，细胞就像电脑，但与电脑不同的是，细胞处理信息依赖于分子，而不是通过电线移动的电子。在过去的五年里，我们开发并使用了先进的方法来研究一个非常简单的生物信息处理的例子，一个酵母细胞用来感知和传递来自外部的信息来做出决定的系统。我们已经了解了细胞使用的分子以及这些分子执行的一些关键操作。在接下来的五年里，我们将仔细研究信息传输系统中一个关键部分的分子操作。我们将学习这些分子事件如何影响系统传输的信号以及信号所携带的信息。在短期内，因为在包括人类在内的所有动物细胞中都有密切相关的系统运作，我们对分子如何运作的了解可能会为设计操纵其功能的药物提供途径，并可能提供有用的治疗方法。从长远来看，更好地了解分子事件如何对信息进行操作可能有助于指导遗传干预，并可能有助于分子计算的发展。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Living things differ from nonliving things in that they carry information stored in DNA and RNA. Much of what living cells need to do require them to integrate this stored information with information inputs from their external environments. In this way, cells are like computers, but, unlike computers, information handling by cells depends on molecules instead of electrons moving through wires. Over the past five years, we have developed and used advanced methods to study a very simple example of biological information handling, a system that a single yeast cell uses to sense and transmit information from outside to make decisions. We have learned about the molecules the cell uses to do this and some of the key operations these molecules perform. During the next five years, we will study carefully the molecular operations needed for one key portion of the information transmission system to function. We will learn how these molecular events affect the signal transmitted by the system and the information that the signal carries. In the shorter term, because closely related systems operate in all animal cells, including humans, what we learn about how the molecules operate may suggest avenues to devise drugs that manipulate their function and might afford useful therapies. Longer term, a better understanding of how molecular events perform operations on information may help guide genetic interventions, and might help contribute to development of molecular computation. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: We will study the operation of one small part of a model information sensing and transmitting system in a model cell. We will learn how specific molecular operations regulate the signal and the information the signal transmits.