Investigations into the relationship between feedback loops and functional importance of a signal transduction network based on

Background: A number of studies on biological networks have been carried out to unravel the topological characteristics that can explain the functional importance of network nodes. For instance, connectivity, clustering coefficient, and shortest path length were previously proposed for this purpose. However, there is still a pressing need to investigate another topological measure that can better describe the functional importance of network nodes. In this respect, we considered a feedback loop which is ubiquitously found in various biological networks. Results: We discovered that the number of feedback loops (NuFBL) is a crucial measure for evaluating the importance of a network node and verified this through a signal transduction network in the hippocampal CA1 neuron of mice as well as through generalized biological network models represented by Boolean networks. In particular, we observed that the proteins with a larger NuFBL are more likely to be essential and to evolve slowly in ...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2007
• Where: BMCBI
• Authors: Yung-Keun Kwon, Sun Shim Choi, Kwang-Hyun Cho
• Keywords: Biological Networks, BMCBI 2007, Functional Importance, Network Nodes