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Liguori-Bills N, Blinov ML. bnglViz: online visualization of rule-based models. Bioinformatics 2024; 40:btae351. [PMID: 38814806 PMCID: PMC11176710 DOI: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btae351] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/13/2024] [Revised: 05/01/2024] [Accepted: 05/29/2024] [Indexed: 06/01/2024] Open
Abstract
MOTIVATION Rule-based modeling is a powerful method to describe and simulate interactions among multi-site molecules and multi-molecular species, accounting for the internal connectivity of molecules in chemical species. This modeling technique is implemented in BioNetGen software that is used by various tools and software frameworks, such as BioNetGen stand-alone software, NFSim simulation engine, Virtual Cell simulation and modeling framework, SmolDyn and PySB software tools. These tools exchange models using BioNetGen scripting language (BNGL). Until now, there was no online visualization of such rule-based models. Modelers and researchers reading the manuscripts describing rule-based models had to learn BNGL scripting or master one of these tools to understand the models. RESULTS Here, we introduce bnglViz, an online platform for visualizing BNGL files as graphical cartoons, empowering researchers to grasp the nuances of rule-based models swiftly and efficiently, and making the exploration of complex biological systems more accessible than ever before. The produced visualizations can be used as supplemental figures in publications or as a way to annotate BNGL models on web repositories. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION Available at https://bnglviz.github.io/.
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Affiliation(s)
- Noah Liguori-Bills
- Marine Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Department, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, United States
| | - Michael L Blinov
- R. D. Berlin Center for Cell Analysis and Modeling, University of Connecticut School of Medicine, Farmington, CT 06030, United States
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Ortega OO, Lopez CF. Interactive Multiresolution Visualization of Cellular Network Processes. iScience 2019; 23:100748. [PMID: 31884165 PMCID: PMC6941861 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2019.100748] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/03/2019] [Revised: 11/08/2019] [Accepted: 11/25/2019] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Visualization plays a central role in the analysis of biochemical network models to identify patterns that arise from reaction dynamics and perform model exploratory analysis. To facilitate these analyses, we developed PyViPR, a visualization tool that generates static and dynamic representations of biochemical network processes within a Python-based environment. PyViPR embeds network visualizations within Jupyter notebooks, thus enabling integration with modeling, simulation, and analysis workflows. To present the capabilities of PyViPR, we explore execution mechanisms of extrinsic apoptosis in HeLa cells. We show that community-detection algorithms identify groups of molecular species that capture key biological functions and ease exploration of the apoptosis network. We then show how different kinetic parameter sets that fit the experimental data equally well exhibit significantly different signal-execution dynamics as the system progresses toward mitochondrial outer-membrane permeabilization. Therefore, PyViPR aids the conceptual understanding of dynamic network processes and accelerates hypothesis generation for further testing and validation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Oscar O Ortega
- Chemical and Physical Biology Program, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - Carlos F Lopez
- Chemical and Physical Biology Program, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA; Biochemistry Department, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA.
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Abstract
Mechanistic models are an important tool to gain insights about the quantitative behavior of cell-biological signal transduction networks. Here we show how Simmune can be used in conjunction with IPython to create repeatable, self-contained analyses of signal transduction processes in spatially inhomogeneous environments.
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Wang J, Yin Y, Lau S, Sankaran J, Rothenberg E, Wohland T, Meier-Schellersheim M, Knaut H. Anosmin1 Shuttles Fgf to Facilitate Its Diffusion, Increase Its Local Concentration, and Induce Sensory Organs. Dev Cell 2018; 46:751-766.e12. [PMID: 30122631 DOI: 10.1016/j.devcel.2018.07.015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/24/2018] [Revised: 05/26/2018] [Accepted: 07/18/2018] [Indexed: 02/08/2023]
Abstract
Growth factors induce and pattern sensory organs, but how their distribution is regulated by the extracellular matrix (ECM) is largely unclear. To address this question, we analyzed the diffusion behavior of Fgf10 molecules during sensory organ formation in the zebrafish posterior lateral line primordium. In this tissue, secreted Fgf10 induces organ formation at a distance from its source. We find that most Fgf10 molecules are highly diffusive and move rapidly through the ECM. We identify Anosmin1, which when mutated in humans causes Kallmann Syndrome, as an ECM protein that binds to Fgf10 and facilitates its diffusivity by increasing the pool of fast-moving Fgf10 molecules. In the absence of Anosmin1, Fgf10 levels are reduced and organ formation is impaired. Global overexpression of Anosmin1 slows the fast-moving Fgf10 molecules and results in Fgf10 dispersal. These results suggest that Anosmin1 liberates ECM-bound Fgf10 and shuttles it to increase its signaling range.
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Affiliation(s)
- John Wang
- Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, 540 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016, USA
| | - Yandong Yin
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, New York University School of Medicine, 540 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016, USA
| | - Stephanie Lau
- Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, 540 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016, USA
| | - Jagadish Sankaran
- Department of Chemistry, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Eli Rothenberg
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, New York University School of Medicine, 540 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016, USA
| | - Thorsten Wohland
- Department of Chemistry, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Martin Meier-Schellersheim
- Laboratory of Systems Biology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Holger Knaut
- Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, 540 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016, USA.
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Gonnord P, Angermann BR, Sadtler K, Gombos E, Chappert P, Meier-Schellersheim M, Varma R. A hierarchy of affinities between cytokine receptors and the common gamma chain leads to pathway cross-talk. Sci Signal 2018; 11:11/524/eaal1253. [PMID: 29615515 DOI: 10.1126/scisignal.aal1253] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
Cytokines belonging to the common gamma chain (γc) family depend on the shared γc receptor subunit for signaling. We report the existence of a fast, cytokine-induced pathway cross-talk acting at the receptor level, resulting from a limiting amount of γc on the surface of T cells. We found that this limited abundance of γc reduced interleukin-4 (IL-4) and IL-21 responses after IL-7 preexposure but not vice versa. Computational modeling combined with quantitative experimental assays indicated that the asymmetric cross-talk resulted from the ability of the "private" IL-7 receptor subunits (IL-7Rα) to bind to many of the γc molecules even before stimulation with cytokine. Upon exposure of T cells to IL-7, the high affinity of the IL-7Rα:IL-7 complex for γc further reduced the amount of free γc in a manner dependent on the concentration of IL-7. Measurements of bioluminescence resonance energy transfer (BRET) between IL-4Rα and γc were reduced when IL-7Rα was overexpressed. Furthermore, in a system expressing IL-7Rα, IL-4Rα, and γc, BRET between IL-4Rα and γc increased after IL-4 binding and decreased when cells were preexposed to IL-7, supporting the assumption that IL-7Rα and the IL-7Rα:IL-7 complex limit the accessibility of γc for other cytokine receptor complexes. We propose that in complex inflammatory environments, such asymmetric cross-talk establishes a hierarchy of cytokine responsiveness.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pauline Gonnord
- Computational Biology Unit, Laboratory of Systems Biology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Bastian R Angermann
- Computational Biology Unit, Laboratory of Systems Biology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Kaitlyn Sadtler
- Computational Biology Unit, Laboratory of Systems Biology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Erin Gombos
- Computational Biology Unit, Laboratory of Systems Biology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Pascal Chappert
- Computational Biology Unit, Laboratory of Systems Biology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Martin Meier-Schellersheim
- Computational Biology Unit, Laboratory of Systems Biology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
| | - Rajat Varma
- Computational Biology Unit, Laboratory of Systems Biology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
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Sekar JAP, Tapia JJ, Faeder JR. Automated visualization of rule-based models. PLoS Comput Biol 2017; 13:e1005857. [PMID: 29131816 PMCID: PMC5703574 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005857] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/05/2016] [Revised: 11/27/2017] [Accepted: 10/30/2017] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Frameworks such as BioNetGen, Kappa and Simmune use "reaction rules" to specify biochemical interactions compactly, where each rule specifies a mechanism such as binding or phosphorylation and its structural requirements. Current rule-based models of signaling pathways have tens to hundreds of rules, and these numbers are expected to increase as more molecule types and pathways are added. Visual representations are critical for conveying rule-based models, but current approaches to show rules and interactions between rules scale poorly with model size. Also, inferring design motifs that emerge from biochemical interactions is an open problem, so current approaches to visualize model architecture rely on manual interpretation of the model. Here, we present three new visualization tools that constitute an automated visualization framework for rule-based models: (i) a compact rule visualization that efficiently displays each rule, (ii) the atom-rule graph that conveys regulatory interactions in the model as a bipartite network, and (iii) a tunable compression pipeline that incorporates expert knowledge and produces compact diagrams of model architecture when applied to the atom-rule graph. The compressed graphs convey network motifs and architectural features useful for understanding both small and large rule-based models, as we show by application to specific examples. Our tools also produce more readable diagrams than current approaches, as we show by comparing visualizations of 27 published models using standard graph metrics. We provide an implementation in the open source and freely available BioNetGen framework, but the underlying methods are general and can be applied to rule-based models from the Kappa and Simmune frameworks also. We expect that these tools will promote communication and analysis of rule-based models and their eventual integration into comprehensive whole-cell models.
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Affiliation(s)
- John Arul Prakash Sekar
- Department of Computational & Systems Biology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States of America
| | - Jose-Juan Tapia
- Department of Computational & Systems Biology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States of America
| | - James R. Faeder
- Department of Computational & Systems Biology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States of America
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Chylek LA, Harris LA, Faeder JR, Hlavacek WS. Modeling for (physical) biologists: an introduction to the rule-based approach. Phys Biol 2015; 12:045007. [PMID: 26178138 PMCID: PMC4526164 DOI: 10.1088/1478-3975/12/4/045007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 52] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
Models that capture the chemical kinetics of cellular regulatory networks can be specified in terms of rules for biomolecular interactions. A rule defines a generalized reaction, meaning a reaction that permits multiple reactants, each capable of participating in a characteristic transformation and each possessing certain, specified properties, which may be local, such as the state of a particular site or domain of a protein. In other words, a rule defines a transformation and the properties that reactants must possess to participate in the transformation. A rule also provides a rate law. A rule-based approach to modeling enables consideration of mechanistic details at the level of functional sites of biomolecules and provides a facile and visual means for constructing computational models, which can be analyzed to study how system-level behaviors emerge from component interactions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lily A Chylek
- Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA
- Theoretical Biology and Biophysics Group, Theoretical Division and Center for Nonlinear Studies, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA
| | - Leonard A Harris
- Department of Cancer Biology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN 37212, USA
| | - James R Faeder
- Department of Computational and Systems Biology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA
| | - William S Hlavacek
- Theoretical Biology and Biophysics Group, Theoretical Division and Center for Nonlinear Studies, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA
- New Mexico Consortium, Los Alamos, NM 87544, USA
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Wenskovitch JE, Harris LA, Tapia JJ, Faeder JR, Marai GE. MOSBIE: a tool for comparison and analysis of rule-based biochemical models. BMC Bioinformatics 2014; 15:316. [PMID: 25253680 PMCID: PMC4261755 DOI: 10.1186/1471-2105-15-316] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/20/2014] [Accepted: 09/16/2014] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Mechanistic models that describe the dynamical behaviors of biochemical systems are common in computational systems biology, especially in the realm of cellular signaling. The development of families of such models, either by a single research group or by different groups working within the same area, presents significant challenges that range from identifying structural similarities and differences between models to understanding how these differences affect system dynamics. Results We present the development and features of an interactive model exploration system, MOSBIE, which provides utilities for identifying similarities and differences between models within a family. Models are clustered using a custom similarity metric, and a visual interface is provided that allows a researcher to interactively compare the structures of pairs of models as well as view simulation results. Conclusions We illustrate the usefulness of MOSBIE via two case studies in the cell signaling domain. We also present feedback provided by domain experts and discuss the benefits, as well as the limitations, of the approach. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1471-2105-15-316) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | - G Elisabeta Marai
- Electronic Visualization Lab, Department of Computer Science, University of Illinois at Chicago, 60607 Chicago, USA.
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