Transcript Document

Outline
•A Biological Perspective
•The Cell
•The Cell Cycle
•Modeling
•Mathematicians I have known
Molecular Basis of Disease
Cancer
Heart disease
Neurodegenerative illnesses
If we can understand disruption of molecular
events at the cellular level we can perhaps
prevent or stop disease manifestation at the
organismal level
The Cell
A variety of membrane-bounded compartments exist within
eucaryotic cells, each specialized to perform a different function.
Forms of Biological Information
DNA
•Information is contained in the primary
structure (the sequence of bases).
Protein
•Information is contained at multiple
structural levels (primary, secondary,
tertiary, quaternary)
The Cell Cycle
Two processes must alternate during eukaryotic
cell division
•Genome must be replicated in S phase
•Genome must be halved during M phase
Cell cycle events must be
highly regulated in a temporal manner
Genetic and molecular studies in diverse
biological systems have resulted in identification
and characterization of the cell cycle machinery
Mitotic spindle
Chiasmata
DNA replication
Dynamic instabilty
Cell-cycle control
Maturation-promoting factor
Regulation of Cdc2
Cyclin characterization
Checkpoint control
p53
The mitotic checkpoint
The APC and proteolysis
SCF and F-box proteins
Cdc mutants
The restriction point
Yeast centromeres
Cell-cycle conservation
Replication origins
Retinoblastoma/E2F
Body-plan regulation
A new class of cyclins
CDK inhibitors
Sister-chromatid cohesion
The cell cycle engines
cyclin
CDK
•Cyclin Dependent Kinases (CDKs)
P
substrate
product
ATP
+ ADP
Cyclin D-CDK4
Cyclin E-CDK2
Cyclin A-CDK2
Cyclin B-CDC2
CDK activity
Cyclin and CDK expression as cells re-enter
the cell cycle
asyn
0
4
8
12
14
16
20
24
28
32
hours
cyclin A
cyclin E
Cdk2
G0
G1
S
cell cycle phases
G2/M
S
G1
cyclin E
protein
Cdk2 bound
to cyclin E
cyclin E
associated
kinase act iv ity
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Cyclin D-CDK4
Cyclin E-CDK2
CDK
inhibitors
Cyclin B-CDC2
Cyclin A-CDK2
The Cell Cycle
•Complex system
•Components are identified
•Highly regulated
•Defined parameters
Cell Cycle Characteristics
•Temporally ordered events
•Irreversibility
•Oscillations
•Checkpoints
•Positive and negative feedback loops
Positive Feedback Loop
70kg human ~ 1013 cells
Complexity
Overall properties not predictable
from what is known about
constituent parts
Reductionist-analytical strategies focus on
component properties and actions, but do
not necessarily describe dynamic behavior
of the larger system.
The best test of our understanding of cells
will be to make quantitative predictions about
their behavior and test them. This will require
detailed simulations of the biochemical
processes taking place within cells…
Hartwell, Hopfield, Leibler, and Murray
What’s the problem?
•Cartoons are cartoons
•They do not quantitatively describe the
experimental data they summarize
•Used in a loose qualitative manner
•Informal, verbal
•Not reliable for judging accuracy of
mechanistic proposals
Can Mathematical Modeling
Help?
•Notion of mathematical modeling adding value
to standard approaches
•Help to formalize and predict behavior, suggest
experiments
Bioessays 24, 2002.
Modeling the Cell Cycle
•Start from a grocery list of parts
•Break down large scale systems into smaller
functional modules
•Simulate steady states, oscillations, sharp
transitions
•Formulate interactions as precise molecular
mechanisms.
•Convert the mechanism into a set of nonlinear
ordinary differential equations.
•Study the solutions of the differential equations
by numerical simulation.
•Use bifurcation theory to uncover the
dynamical principles of control systems.
Cells progressing through the cell cycle must
commit irreversibly to mitosis.
Questions
•What causes cyclin degradation to turn on and off
periodically?
•Why don’t rates of synthesis and degradation balance each
other?
•There must be some mechanism for switching irreversibly
between phases of net cyclin synthesis and net cyclin
degradation.
Models, models, everywhere
•Many competing models because the degrees of freedom
were unbounded.
•Could occur by hysteresis (ie toggle-like switching
behavior in a dynamical system).
•Time delayed negative feedback loops.
vs
The Hysteresis Model of Novak and Tyson
•Describes a network of interlocking positive and negative
feedback loops controlling cell cycle progression.
•Proposes a bistable switch is created by the positive
feedback loops involving cyclin B-cdc2 and its regulatory
proteins.
Hysteresis
•It takes more of something to push a system from state A to B
than it does to keep the system in B.
•Creates a bistable system with a rachet to prevent slippage
backwards.
•Irreversibility was proposed to arise on transversing a
hysteresis loop
Experimental System
Need pic of xenopus
•Using Xenopus egg extracts to demonstrate the cell cycle
exhibits hysteresis
•The amount of cyclin required to induce entry into mitosis is
larger than the amount of cyclin needed to keep the extract in
mitosis.
Steady state cdc2 kinase activity as a function of [cyclin]
Black dots=experimental
Ti=inactivation threshold
Gray dots=proposed
Ta=activation threshold
The hysteresis model made nonintuitive
predications that were confirmed
experimentally.
• [cyclin B] to drive mitosis > [cyclin B] to stay in mitosis.
• Unreplicated DNA elevates the cyclin B threshold for cdc2
activation; ie checkpoints enlarge the hysteresis loop.
• Cdc2 activation slows down at cyclin B concentrations
marginally above the threshold.
Mathematicians I have known
Cyclin D-CDK4
Cyclin E-CDK2
p27kip1
Cyclin B-CDC2
Cyclin A-CDK2
cyclin
CDK
Model of p27kip1 Function
P
substrate
product
ATP
cyclin
CDK
p27kip1
p27kip1
Inhibited
+ ADP
Cyclin E-CDK2 can phosphorylate p27kip1
wtp2 7 p2 7 (8 7 -1 9 8)
- +
cyclin E
wt
8 7 -1 98
-
+
No pre-incubation
p27 pr e-incubati on
ti me
ti me
p27
No pre-incubati on
phos. p27
p27 pre-incubation
0
5
10
time (min)
15
20
Two Distinct Binding Modes between p2 7 and Cyclin E-Cdk2
loose binding
tight binding
rapid
slow
E-K2 -p2 7
E-K2 + p2 7
rapid
(E-K2 -p2 7 )*
(K2E-p27)tight
Inhibitory
Interaction
Slow
(K2E-p27)loose
p27
ATP
Fast
(K2E-p27-ATP)loose
K2E
ATP
(K2E-ATP)
K2E + p27P
p27
K2E-p27P + ADP
Catalytic
Cycle
Increasing [ATP] Competes with Inhibition of
Cyclin E-Cdk2 by p27
Increasing [ATP] Drives p27
Phosphorylation
5000
1000 M ATP
4000
P27-P
500 M ATP
3000
phos. HH1
2000
150 M ATP
1000
50 M ATP
0
0
5
10
time (min)
Time
(min)
15
20
Switching between Inhibitor and substrate functions
P
P
Switch
cyclin
CDK
cyclin
CDK
p27kip1
p27kip1
p27kip1
Inhibited
Active
Cell cycle
progression
Mathematical analysis of binary activation of
a cell cycle kinase which down-regulates its
own inhibitor
C.D. Thron
Experimental Observations
•P27 binds and inhibits cyclin E-CDK2
•Cyclin E-CDK2 phosphorylates and
deactivates p27
•This creates a positive feedback loop
Is the release of EK2 binary (all-or-none)?
•Binary enzyme activation implies an abrupt
switch from a stable steady state with a low
level of free active enzyme.
•Implies a bistable system. Small parameter
change causes low activity steady state to be
extinguished in a saddle-node bifurcation.
•Mathematical analysis of the biochemical
kinetics required for binary activation.
Conclusions
An enzyme that attacks and deactivates its
own inhibitor is not released from inhibitor
binding in an all-or-none fashion unless
certain kinetic features are present.
You say tomato, I say tomahto
•If you want to communicate with someone,
you need to speak their language
•Convert math to cartoons
•Seek out collaborations/sabbaticals
•The burden of proof is on you
•Look outward as well as inward (kinetics and
physiology)