Intracellular organelle networks: Understanding their organization and communication through systems-level modeling and analysis

Qinle Ba, Ge Yang

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Front. Biol. ›› 2017, Vol. 12 ›› Issue (1) : 7-18. DOI: 10.1007/s11515-016-1436-9
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Intracellular organelle networks: Understanding their organization and communication through systems-level modeling and analysis

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Abstract

BACKGROUND: Membrane-bound intracellular organelles are biochemically distinct compartments used by eukaryotic cells for serving specialized physiological functions and organizing their internal environment. Recent studies revealed surprisingly extensive communication between these organelles and highlighted the network nature of their organization and communication. Since organization and communication of the organelles are carried out at the systems level through their networks, systems-level studies are essential for understanding the underlying mechanisms.

METHODS: We reviewed recent studies that used systems-level quantitative modeling and analysis to understand organization and communication of intracellular organelle networks.

RESULTS: We first review modeling and analysis studies on how fusion/fission and degradation/biogenesis, two essential and closely related classes of activities of individual organelles, collectively mediate the dynamic organization of their networks. We then turn to another important aspect of the dynamic organization of the organelle networks, namely how organelles are physically connected within their networks, a property referred to as the topology of the networks in mathematics, and summarize some of their distinct properties. Lastly, we briefly review modeling and analysis studies that aim to understand communication between different organelle networks, focusing on cellular calcium homeostasis as an example. We conclude with a brief discussion of future directions for research in this area.

CONCLUSIONS: Together, the reviewed studies provide critical insights into how diverse activities of individual organelles collectively mediate the organization and communication of their networks. They demonstrate the essential role of systems-level modeling and analysis in understanding complex behavior of such networks.

Keywords

intracellular organelle / organelle network / organelle communication / network analysis / systems modeling

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Qinle Ba, Ge Yang. Intracellular organelle networks: Understanding their organization and communication through systems-level modeling and analysis. Front. Biol., 2017, 12(1): 7‒18 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11515-016-1436-9

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Acknowledgments

We thank members of the Yang research group for their valuable inputs and Kirill Kiselyov for thoughtful discussions. Q.B. acknowledges support of a John and Claire Bertucci Graduate Research Fellowship. G.Y. acknowledges support of National Science Foundation Faculty CAREER Award DBI-1149494.

Compliance with ethics guidelines

Qinle Ba and Ge Yang declare that they have no conflict of interest. This manuscript is a review article and does not involve a research protocol requiring approval by the relevant institutional review board or ethics committee.

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2016 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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