In silico evolution of circadian clocks

The functioning of living cells is regulated by genes and their products (mRNA and proteins) working in an orchestrated manner through complex feedback mechanisms. Such systems can be described by networks (referredto as Gene Regulatory Networks (GRN)). An example of GRN is that underlying the biological clocks, also known as circadian clocks, which regulate the physiology of a great number of organisms along the day, allowingthem to anticipate the variations of the light in the environment. The project of the thesis consists in developing an "in silico" approach to build up robust models of GRN for circadian clocks. In this approach onevaries randomly mathematical models of clocks using a genetic-type of algorithm based on predefined rules for building up a network progressively. This algorithm selects the best scoring networks out of a large number of networks generated. The study will provide new insights on the dynamical components which make the biological circadian clocks robust to the strong fluctuations of the cellular environment.

Keywords:circadian clocks

Project type:PhD project