title: The informational architecture of the cell.
abstract: We compare the informational architecture of biological and random networks to identify informational features that may distinguish biological networks from random. The study presented here focuses on the Boolean network model for regulation of the cell cycle of the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe. We compare calculated values of local and global information measures for the fission yeast cell cycle to the same measures as applied to two different classes of random networks: Erdös-Rényi and scale-free. We report patterns in local information processing and storage that do indeed distinguish biological from random, associated with control nodes that regulate the function of the fission yeast cell-cycle network. Conversely, we find that integrated information, which serves as a global measure of 'emergent' information processing, does not differ from random for the case presented. We discuss implications for our understanding of the informational architecture of the fission yeast cell-cycle network in particular, and more generally for illuminating any distinctive physics that may be operative in life.
authors: Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 86281, USA School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 86281, USA Blue Marble Space Institute of Science, Seattle, WA, USA sara.i.walker@asu.edu.
authors: Sara Imari
authors: 0000-0001-5779-2772
authors: SI
authors: Walker
authors: Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 86281, USA.
authors: Hyunju
authors: H
authors: Kim
authors: Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 86281, USA.
authors: Paul C W
authors: PC
authors: Davies
mesh_terms: D002453:Cell Cycle; D007700:Kinetics; D008954:Models, Biological; D012568:Schizosaccharomyces / Q000166:cytology*
keywords: Boolean network; information dynamics; informational architecture; integrated information; top-down causation; yeast cell cycle