Modeling Gene Regulatory Network in Fission Yeast Cell Cycle Using Hybrid Petri Nets

Abstract

The complexity of models of gene regulatory network stems from the fact that such models are required to represent continuous, discrete, as well as stochastic aspects of gene regulation. Hybrid stochastic Petri nets as models can fairly incorporate all these aspects while keeping the model as simple as possible. This paper constructs an hybrid Petri net model of the fission yeast cell cycle regulation mechanism. Based on our simulation of the Petri net on an existing tool, we draw some conclusions about the regulation mechanism under study. We discuss the kinds of biologically significant questions that can be answered using hybrid Petri nets as models for genetic regulatory mechanisms.