Specificity and stability in topology of protein networks.
Molecular networks guide the biochemistry of a living cell on multiple levels: Its metabolic and signaling pathways are shaped by the network of interacting proteins, whose production, in turn, is controlled by the genetic regulatory network. To address topological properties of these two networks, we quantified correlations between connectivities of interacting nodes and compared them to a null model of a network, in which all links were randomly rewired. We found that for both interaction and regulatory networks, links between highly connected proteins are systematically suppressed, whereas those between a highly connected and low-connected pairs of proteins are favored. This effect decreases the likelihood of cross talk between different functional modules of the cell and increases the overall robustness of a network by localizing effects of deleterious perturbations.
Maslov
Sergei
S
Department of Physics, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973, USA. maslov@bnl.gov
Sneppen
Kim
K
D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000378:metabolism; D019295:Computational Biology; D015966:Gene Expression Regulation, Fungal; D016681:Genome, Fungal; D009687:Nuclear Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D011336:Probability; D011485:Protein Binding; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D029701:Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D014158:Transcription, Genetic; D020798:Two-Hybrid System Techniques
D009687:Nuclear Proteins; D029701:Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins