RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Systems Biology Approach to Model the Life Cycle of Trypanosoma cruzi JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 025510 DO 10.1101/025510 A1 Alejandra Carrea A1 Luis Diambra YR 2015 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2015/08/25/025510.abstract AB Due to recent advances in reprogramming cell phenotypes, many efforts have been dedicated to developing reverse engineering procedures for the identification of gene regulatory networks that emulate dynamical properties associated with the cell fates of a given biological system. In this work, we propose a systems biology approach for the reconstruction of the gene regulatory network underlying the dynamics of the Trypanosoma cruzi’s life cycle. By means of an optimisation procedure, we embedded the steady state maintenance, and the known phenotypic transitions between these steady states in response to environmental cues, into the dynamics of a gene network model. In the resulting network architecture we identified a small subnetwork, formed by seven interconnected nodes, that controls the parasite’s life cycle. The present approach could be useful for better understanding other single cell organisms with multiple developmental stages.GRNgene regulatory networkSVDsingular value decompositionTStrans-sialidase