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Section edited by Martin Lercher and Itai Yanaiuyne
Systems biology aims to build and apply models for biological systems too complex to be understood intuitively. The systems may comprise, for example, genes, their products, or metabolites, but the focus of the research should be the connections between the parts rather than the parts themselves. Suitable research includes work on systems at all scales, including, but not limited to, metabolic networks, signalling networks, and developmental pathways. Theoretical work should lead to testable predictions that can be applied to biological data. Evolutionary comparisons of systems are particularly welcome, as are analyses of systems-level properties and their relations to biological function.
Research
The transition between epithelial and mesenchymal phenotypes (EMT) occurs in a variety of contexts. It is critical for mammalian development and it is also involved in tumor initiation and progression. Master ...
Biology Direct 2017 12:8
Published on: 17 April 2017
Hypothesis
Behavior, while complex and dynamic, is among the most diverse, derived, and rapidly evolving traits in animals. The highly labile nature of heritable behavioral change is observed in such evolutionary phenome...
Biology Direct 2016 11:60
Published on: 8 November 2016
Research
Gene covariation networks are commonly used to study biological processes. The inference of gene covariation networks from observational data can be challenging, especially considering the large number of play...
Biology Direct 2016 11:52
Published on: 13 October 2016
Research
Ribosome profiling (or Ribo-seq) is currently the most popular methodology for studying translation; it has been employed in recent years to decipher various fundamental gene expression regulation aspects.
Biology Direct 2016 11:24
Published on: 10 May 2016
Application note
Network-based integrative analysis is a powerful technique for extracting biological insights from multilayered omics data such as somatic mutations, copy number variations, and gene expression data. However, ...
Biology Direct 2016 11:10
Published on: 18 March 2016
Hypothesis
Mounting evidence indicates that our planet might experience runaway effects associated to rising temperatures and ecosystem overexploitation, leading to catastrophic shifts on short time scales. Remediation s...
Biology Direct 2015 10:37
Published on: 18 July 2015
Research
Intron sequences are common in 16S rRNA genes of specific thermophilic lineages of Archaea, specifically the Thermoproteales (phylum Crenarchaeota). Environmental sequencing (16S rRNA gene and metagenome) from ge...
Biology Direct 2015 10:35
Published on: 9 July 2015
Comment
Our body harbors hundreds of microbial species and contains many more bacterial than human cells. These microbes are not passive riders but rather a vital component of the organism. The human microbiota affect...
Biology Direct 2014 10:25
Published on: 30 November 2014
Review
This article was reviewed by Neil S. Greenspan and Rachel Gerstein.
Biology Direct 2014 9:21
Published on: 29 October 2014
Research
Measures of node centrality in biological networks are useful to detect genes with critical functional roles. In gene co-expression networks, highly connected genes (i.e., candidate hubs) have been associated ...
Biology Direct 2014 9:12
Published on: 19 June 2014
Review
The emergence of Next Generation Sequencing generates an incredible amount of sequence and great potential for new enzyme discovery. Despite this huge amount of data and the profusion of bioinformatic methods ...
Biology Direct 2014 9:10
Published on: 6 June 2014
Review
Biological systems produce outputs in response to variable inputs. Input-output relations tend to follow a few regular patterns. For example, many chemical processes follow the S-shaped Hill equation relation ...
Biology Direct 2013 8:31
Published on: 5 December 2013
