TY - JOUR AU - Dresch, Jacqueline M. AU - Liu, Xiaozhou AU - Arnosti, David N. AU - Ay, Ahmet PY - 2010 DA - 2010/10/24 TI - Thermodynamic modeling of transcription: sensitivity analysis differentiates biological mechanism from mathematical model-induced effects JO - BMC Systems Biology SP - 142 VL - 4 IS - 1 AB - Quantitative models of gene expression generate parameter values that can shed light on biological features such as transcription factor activity, cooperativity, and local effects of repressors. An important element in such investigations is sensitivity analysis, which determines how strongly a model's output reacts to variations in parameter values. Parameters of low sensitivity may not be accurately estimated, leading to unwarranted conclusions. Low sensitivity may reflect the nature of the biological data, or it may be a result of the model structure. Here, we focus on the analysis of thermodynamic models, which have been used extensively to analyze gene transcription. Extracted parameter values have been interpreted biologically, but until now little attention has been given to parameter sensitivity in this context. SN - 1752-0509 UR - https://doi.org/10.1186/1752-0509-4-142 DO - 10.1186/1752-0509-4-142 ID - Dresch2010 ER -