title: Funneled landscape leads to robustness of cellular networks: MAPK signal transduction.
abstract: We uncover the underlying potential energy landscape for a cellular network. We find that the potential energy landscape of the mitogen-activated protein-kinase signal transduction network is funneled toward the global minimum. The funneled landscape is quite robust against random perturbations. This naturally explains robustness from a physical point of view. The ratio of slope versus roughness of the landscape becomes a quantitative measure of robustness of the network. Funneled landscape is a realization of the Darwinian principle of natural selection at the cellular network level. It provides an optimal criterion for network connections and design. Our approach is general and can be applied to other cellular networks.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, New York 11794, USA. jin.wang.1@stonybrook.edu
authors.forename: Jin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Xuefeng
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.forename: Zhirong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Sun
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002450:Cell Communication / Q000502:physiology*; D004735:Energy Transfer / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D020935:MAP Kinase Signaling System / Q000502:physiology*; D008954:Models, Biological; D013816:Thermodynamics