In silico tools for signal transduction research

Abstract

Signal transduction is a fundamental process that takes place in all living organisms and understanding how this event occurs at the cellular level is of vital importance to virtually all fields of biomedicine. There are several major steps involved in deciphering the signalling pathways: (a) Which molecules are involved in signalling? (b) Who talks to whom?, ie making sense of the molecular interactions in a context-dependent way. (c) Where are the signalling events taking place?, eg when a resting cell becomes activated. The challenge lies in reconstructing signalling modules and networks evoked in a particular response to a single input as well as correlating the signalling response to different cellular inputs. There is also the need for interpretation of cross-talk between signalling modules in response to single and multiple inputs. To follow up these questions there are many good databases that provide an information system on regulatory networks. This review aims to find some of the bioinformatics tools and websites available to conduct signal transduction research and to discuss the representation of databases available for the processes of signalling. The databases considered here can provide a well-structured overview on the subject and a basis for advanced bioinformatics analysis to interpret the function of genomic sequences or to analyse signalling networks within a cell. However, the knowledge of most signalling pathways is incomplete and for this reason the existing databases will provide insight, but very rarely a more complete picture.