Crosstalk in plant cell signaling: structure and function of the genetic network

Cell signaling integrates independent stimuli using connections between bio chemical pathways. The sensory apparatus can be represented as a network, a nd the connections between pathways are termed crosstalk. Here, we describe several examples of crosstalk in plant biology. To formalize the network o f signal transduction we evaluated the relevance of mechanistic models used in artificial intelligence. Although the perceptron model of neural networ king provides a good description of the process, we suggest that Boolean ne tworks should be used as a starting framework. The Boolean network model al lows genetic data to be integrated into the logical network of connections deduced from DNA microarray data.