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Plant systems biology: network matters
Author(s) -
LUCAS MIKAËL,
LAPLAZE LAURENT,
BENNETT MALCOLM J.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
plant, cell and environment
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.646
H-Index - 200
eISSN - 1365-3040
pISSN - 0140-7791
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-3040.2010.02273.x
Subject(s) - systems biology , biology , plant biology , modelling biological systems , scale (ratio) , biological network , systems medicine , ecology , computational biology , computer science , physics , botany , quantum mechanics
Systems biology is all about networks. A recent trend has been to associate systems biology exclusively with the study of gene regulatory or protein‐interaction networks. However, systems biology approaches can be applied at many other scales, from the subatomic to the ecosystem scales. In this review, we describe studies at the sub‐cellular, tissue, whole plant and crop scales and highlight how these studies can be related to systems biology. We discuss the properties of system approaches at each scale as well as their current limits, and pinpoint in each case advances unique to the considered scale but representing potential for the other scales. We conclude by examining plant models bridging different scales and considering the future prospects of plant systems biology.