Skip to main content
Figure 2 | BMC Systems Biology

Figure 2

From: Quantitative analysis of intracellular communication and signaling errors in signaling networks

Figure 2

The caspase3 network and its input-output characteristics and transition probability diagrams. (a) Transmission error probability P e versus the dominance factor k in the caspase3 communication channel. We have calculated transmission error probabilities using the total probability theorem and by considering all the error events (see Methods). The caspase3 network shows completely different behavior depending on the dominant dysfunctional molecule. For example, when AKT is the dominant molecule, P e rapidly increases as the dominance factor k increases. This shows the critical role of AKT in signal transmission over this molecular communication channel. In contrast, other molecules, such as EGFR or MEKK1ASK1, cause a small increase in P e , which indicates that they have less impact on information transfer. The decrease of P e for the rest of the molecules means that even if any of these molecules is dysfunctional with probability one, there will be no transmission error. (b) Caspase3 signaling capacity C versus the dominance factor k. Small values of C for AKT confirm the significant role of a dysfunctional AKT. Higher values of C for EGFR and MEKK1ASK1 mean that their dysfunction is less harmful to signal transmission than AKT. Large values of C for the rest of the molecules indicate their insignificance, when they are dysfunctional.

Back to article page