RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 rxncon 2.0: a language for executable molecular systems biology
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 107136
DO 10.1101/107136
A1 Jesper C. Romers
A1 Marcus Krantz
YR 2017
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/09/05/107136.abstract
AB Large-scale knowledge bases and models become increasingly important to systematise and interpret empirical knowledge on cellular systems. In signalling networks, as opposed to metabolic networks, distinct modifications of and bonds between components combine into very large numbers of possible configurations, or microstates. These are essentially never measured in vivo, making explicit modelling strategies both impractical and problematic. Here, we present rxncon 2.0, the second generation rxncon language, as a tool to define signal transduction networks at the level of empirical data. By expressing both reactions and contingencies (contextual constraints on reactions) in terms of elemental states, both the combinatorial complexity and the discrepancy to empirical data can be minimised. It works as a higher-level language natural to biologists, which can be compiled into a range of graphical formats or executable models. Taken together, the rxncon language combines mechanistic precision with scalability in a composable and compilable language, that is designed for building executable knowledge bases on the molecular biology of signalling systems.