Gene regulatory network

A system of interacting genes, regulatory elements, and molecules that controls when, where, and how strongly genes are expressed.

Transcription factor: A protein that binds specific DNA sequences and influences transcription. Transcription factors connect regulatory DNA to changes in target-gene expression.
Cis-regulatory element: A noncoding DNA sequence that regulates genes on the same DNA molecule. These sequences provide binding sites that organize regulatory inputs.
Developmental biology: The study of how organisms grow and form specialized structures. Development depends on regulatory networks that change gene expression across time and tissues.
Lac operon: A bacterial gene-regulation system that enables lactose use when conditions permit. This classic circuit combines repression and activation to control a metabolic pathway.
Gene regulatory network inference: The computational reconstruction of regulatory relationships from biological measurements. Inference methods attempt to recover network structure from expression and perturbation data.
Enhancer: A DNA sequence that increases transcription of a gene, often from a distance. Enhancers let regulatory inputs affect genes beyond nearby promoters.
RNA polymerase: An enzyme that synthesizes RNA from a DNA template. Regulatory networks ultimately control whether RNA polymerase transcribes target genes.
Cell differentiation: The process by which a cell acquires specialized structure and function. Distinct network states help establish and maintain specialized cell identities.
Lambda phage genetic switch: A bacteriophage regulatory circuit that selects between lysogenic and lytic states. Its interacting repressors illustrate how feedback can create alternative stable states.
Single-cell RNA sequencing: A method for measuring RNA molecules in individual cells. Single-cell measurements reveal cell-to-cell variation hidden in bulk network data.

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