Synthesis and Analysis of a Biological System

Genome sequencing and further systematic functional analyses of complete gene sets will enable a mathematical framework model to synthesize specific biological systems and to analyze them at a molecular interaction level. Computational system analysis will clarify some of the design principles underlying a biological architecture. Barkai and Leibler [1] demonstrated a robust property of adaptation behavior in bacterial chemotaxis, indicating that the robust adaptation was a consequence of the network’s connectivity and the chemotaxis system did not require the fine-tuning of biochemical parameters. However, they did not answer the crucial question on whether it is possible to isolate such a subsystem from the whole system composed of heterogeneous and interactive networks and to analyze it separately. To address this issue, Kurata [2] established a numerical framework model of the E. coli heat shock response, and showed how complexity in regulation generates the robustness of the factors interconnected among subsystems.