title: The relationship between modularity and robustness in signalling networks.
abstract: Many biological networks tend to have a high modularity structural property and the dynamic characteristic of high robustness against perturbations. However, the relationship between modularity and robustness is not well understood. To investigate this relationship, we examined real signalling networks and conducted simulations using a random Boolean network model. As a result, we first observed that the network robustness is negatively correlated with the network modularity. In particular, this negative correlation becomes more apparent as the network density becomes sparser. Even more interesting is that, the negative relationship between the network robustness and the network modularity occurs mainly because nodes in the same module with the perturbed node tend to be more sensitive to the perturbation than those in other modules. This result implies that dynamically similar nodes tend to be located in the same module of a network. To support this, we show that a pair of genes associated with the same disease or a pair of functionally similar genes is likely to belong to the same module in a human signalling network.
authors.affiliation: Complex Systems Computing Lab, School of Computer Engineering and Information Technology, University of Ulsan, 93 Daehak-ro, Nam-gu, Ulsan 680-749, South Korea.
authors.forename: Tien-Dzung
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Tran
authors.forename: Yung-Keun
authors.initials: YK
authors.lastname: Kwon
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D016571:Neural Networks, Computer; D015398:Signal Transduction
keywords: modularity; robustness; signalling networks
references.citation: Evol Dev. 2000 Sep-Oct;2(5):235-7
references.pmid: 11252551
references.citation: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2011 Jan 18;108(3):1007-10
references.pmid: 21191103
references.citation: Clin Genet. 2007 Jan;71(1):95-6
references.pmid: 17204055
references.citation: Leuk Res. 1999 Aug;23(8):685-94
references.pmid: 10456665
references.citation: Bioinformatics. 2011 Apr 15;27(8):1113-20
references.pmid: 21325303
references.citation: Science. 1999 Oct 15;286(5439):509-12
references.pmid: 10521342
references.citation: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2007 May 15;104 Suppl 1:8582-9
references.pmid: 17494755
references.citation: J Comput Biol. 2011 Apr;18(4):559-77
references.pmid: 21417939
references.citation: Mol Syst Biol. 2008;4:213
references.pmid: 18682703
references.citation: J Theor Biol. 1969 Mar;22(3):437-67
references.pmid: 5803332
references.citation: Mol Syst Biol. 2007;3:152
references.pmid: 18091723
references.citation: J Theor Biol. 2004 Oct 21;230(4):581-90
references.pmid: 15363677
references.citation: Science. 2002 May 3;296(5569):910-3
references.pmid: 11988575
references.citation: Mol Biol Evol. 2007 Apr;24(4):1005-11
references.pmid: 17264066
references.citation: PLoS Comput Biol. 2011 Oct;7(10):e1002208
references.pmid: 21998573
references.citation: Mol Syst Biol. 2009;5:262
references.pmid: 19357641
references.citation: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2006 Jun 6;103(23):8577-82
references.pmid: 16723398
references.citation: PLoS One. 2011 Feb 02;6(2):e16605
references.pmid: 21311770
references.citation: J Exp Zool. 1999 Dec 15;285(4):307-25
references.pmid: 10578108
references.citation: Nat Rev Genet. 2004 Nov;5(11):826-37
references.pmid: 15520792
references.citation: Phys Rev Lett. 2008 Mar 21;100(11):118703
references.pmid: 18517839
references.citation: PLoS Comput Biol. 2007 Feb 2;3(2):e15
references.pmid: 17274682
references.citation: Genome Biol. 2009;10(9):R91
references.pmid: 19728866
references.citation: Bioinformatics. 2008 Apr 1;24(7):987-94
references.pmid: 18285369
references.citation: Genome Biol Evol. 2011;3:456-75
references.pmid: 21602570
references.citation: Phys Rev Lett. 2011 Oct 21;107(17):178701
references.pmid: 22107590
references.citation: Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2009 Feb;79(2 Pt 2):026102
references.pmid: 19391801
references.citation: J Pediatr Endocrinol Metab. 2012;25(7-8):801-3
references.pmid: 23155715
references.citation: Phys Rev Lett. 2012 May 4;108(18):188701
references.pmid: 22681123