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Historically, researchers have studied bacterial signaling as if it functioned as a set of isolated, linear pathways. More recent studies, however, have demonstrated that many signaling pathways interact and that these interacting pathways should be construed as an intricate network. This network integrates diverse signals, both extracellular and intracellular, to ensure that the the correct amount of the appropriate subset of genes is expressed at the proper time. Complete delineation of this complex signal transduction network and use of the network to predict the full range of cellular behaviors are major goals of systems biology.

Despite considerable progress, we remain near the beginning of this process, which thus far has been dominated by the development of enabling technologies and the compilation of gene lists. Although development and compilation will continue to be essential, the next critical step must be …