What is the difference between Intracellular Signaling Network and Gene Regulatory Network?

Question

[m.taheri]

I know it may be a very basic question. But after studying articles I still do not know what is the difference between Intracellular Signaling Network and Gene Regulatory Network? Is Gene Regulatory Network a part of Inracellular Signaling Network? Or a Gene Regulatory Network is just a more abstract form of Intracellular Signaling Network? or maybe neither are true?

Answer 1

[Jean-Karim Heriche]

Intracellular signalling networks are composed of pathways that process signals both from outside the cell and from different parts of the cell. These networks of pathways coordinate the various biological processes within the cell. An example of such pathways would be signal transduction cascades downstream of cell surface receptors. Gene regulatory networks seem to have more variable definitions. One is that a gene regulatory network is a network of genes or genetic elements that interact to control a particular cellular process. An alternative definition is that a gene regulatory network is a network of molecular interactions that control gene expression. This second definition is sometimes used to encompass whole signalling pathways or sometimes used to describe genetic activity downstream of signalling pathways (e.g. the interplay of transcription factors).

The main difference lies in the focus of what people are interested in and is reflected in the names. People talking about signalling pathways are interested in how signals are transmitted and how cellular activities are coordinated (this may or may not include gene expression). People talking about gene regulatory networks are interested in how gene expression is regulated. Historically, signalling pathways were studied from a biochemical point of view and the notion of gene regulatory network has become popular in bioinformatics with the advent of microarrays and people trying to infer gene regulation from large scale expression data.

[m.taheri]

My own focus is on studying long-run behaviors of a cell. I think we can explain long-run behaviors of cells by both Intracellular Signaling Network and Gene Regulatory Network. Right? Which one is better for this task?