Timing of molecular processes in a synchronous Boolean model of genetic regulatory network

A generalization of the model of random Boolean network (RBN) is presented, in whichthe concept of timing of regulatory processes is explicitly introduced, together with novel types ofentity and interaction, directly inspired to real genetic networks. Beyond the attempt ofapproaching a higher level of faithfulness to the natural world, at the base of the development ofthe model is the need for a sensible comparison with time-series microarray data-sets, inaccessibleto the original RBN model, because of the strict assumptions about the simultaneity of theregulation mechanisms. Preliminary analysis on networks typified by “critical” parameters showeda strong, even though not univocal, influence of a variation in the distribution of the time delaysthat characterize the entities of the system on the emerging dynamics: the larger the “memory” ofthe system about its dynamical evolution is, the more ordered the behaviour would tend to be.