A Process Model of Rho GTP-binding Proteins in the Context of Phagocytosis

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Luca Cardelli, Philippa Gardner, Ozan Kahramanoğulları
Proceedings of the First Workshop "From Biology To Concurrency and back (FBTC 2007)", pp. 87102
Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science 194(3)
Elsevier Science Publishers B. V., Amsterdam, The Netherlands, The Netherlands
2008

At the early stages of the phagocytic signalling, Rho GTP-binding proteins play a key role. With the stimulus from the cell membrane and with the help from the regulators (GEF, GAP, Effector, GDI), these proteins serve as switches that interact with their environment in a complex manner. We present a generic process model for the Rho GTP-binding proteins, and compare it with a previous model that uses ordinary differential equations. We then extend the basic model to include the behaviour of the GDIs. We discuss the challenges this extension brings and directions of further research.