Chapter 4 - Gene Regulatory Networks for Development: What They Are, How They Work, and What They Mean

Abstract

This chapter focuses on general structural properties of developmental gene regulatory networks. The inputs at each cis-regulatory module in the network can be authenticated, like any cis-regulatory predictions, by isolation of the module from the genome and causal analysis of their function by mutation. Developmental gene regulatory networks are composed fundamentally of genomic components, that is, the genes and their relevant cis-regulatory modules at its nodes; and of regulatory state components, that is, the transcription factors that provide regulatory inputs into these modules. The terminal components of any given developmental gene regulatory network are genes, the outputs of which do not affect other genes in the network. The causal importance of the inputs within a network is usually established initially by some form of knockout or loss of function experiments in which given factors are removed from the regulatory state either by genetic means, or by intervention in the molecular biology of expression of particular genes.