A Systems’ Biology Approach to Study MicroRNA-Mediated Gene Regulatory Networks

Figure 1

p21 regulatory network. The network contains several layers of regulators of p21: TFs (light blue and red boxes), miRNAs (dark blue and green boxes), and proteins (grey boxes). In each big box, there are small boxes which represent individual components of this layer of regulation. miRNAs are classified into two groups according to the mechanisms by which the expression of p21 is repressed. One group causes p21 translation repression (green box). These miRNAs bind to p21 mRNA resulting in the repressed translation of p21 but unchanged mRNA expression level. The other group of miRNAs (dark blue box) decreases the stability of p21 mRNA by modifying its structure, leading to mRNA decay and finally the downregulation of p21. TFs are classified into three groups: p21 TFs (red), miRNA TFs (yellow) and their common TFs (light blue). The p21 interacting-proteins are framed in the grey boxes. The purple boxes represent nine processes, and the TFs associated with these processes are indicated in the ellipses above them using corresponding figures. This data is adapted from our previous publication [4].