Cell Cycle Regulation in the Budding Yeast

Cell cycle is regulated cooperatively by several genes. The dynamic regulatory mechanism of protein interaction network of cell cycle will be presented taking the budding yeast as a sample system. Based on the mathematical model developed by Chen et at. (MBC, 11,369), at first, the dynamic role of the feedback loops is investigated. Secondly, using a bifurcation diagram, dynamic analysis of the cell cycle regulation is illustrated. The bifurcation diagram is a kind of ‘dynamic road map’ with stable and unstable solutions. On the map, a stable solution denotes a ‘road’ attracting the state and an unstable solution ‘a repelling road’ The ‘START’ transition, the initiation of the cell cycle, occurs at the point where the dynamic road changes from a fixed point to an oscillatory solution. The 'FINISH' transition, the completion of a cell cycle, is returning back to the initial state. The bifurcation analysis for the mutants could be used uncovering the role of proteins in the cell cycle regulation network.