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Bow-tie topological features of metabolic networks and the functional significance

  • Articles/Bioinformatics
  • Published:
Chinese Science Bulletin

Abstract

Exploring the structural topology of genome-based large-scale metabolic network is essential for investigating possible relations between structure and functionality. Visualization would be helpful for obtaining immediate information about structural organization. In this work, metabolic networks of 75 organisms were investigated from a topological point of view. A spread bow-tie model was proposed to give a clear visualization of the bow-tie structure for metabolic networks. The revealed topological pattern helps to design more efficient algorithm specifically for metabolic networks. This coarsegrained graph also visualizes the vulnerable connections in the network, and thus could have important implication for disease studies and drug target identifications. In addition, analysis on the reciprocal links and main cores in the GSC part of bow-tie also reveals that the bow-tie structure of metabolic networks has its own intrinsic and significant features which are significantly different from those of random networks.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Life Sciences & Technology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China

    Zhao Jing, Luo JianHua & Li YiXue

  2. Shanghai Center for Bioinformation and Technology, Shanghai, 200235, China

    Zhao Jing, Tao Lin, Yu Hong, Luo JianHua & Cao ZhiWei

  3. Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200031, China

    Li YiXue

  4. Department of Mathematics, Logistical Engineering University, Chongqing, 400016, China

    Zhao Jing

Authors
  1. Zhao Jing
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  2. Tao Lin
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  3. Yu Hong
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  4. Luo JianHua
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  5. Cao ZhiWei
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  6. Li YiXue
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Cao ZhiWei or Li YiXue.

Additional information

Supported in part by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (Grant Nos. 2003CB715900 and 2004CB720103), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 30500107 and 30670953), and Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (Grant Nos. 04DZ19850 and 04DZ14005)

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Zhao, J., Tao, L., Yu, H. et al. Bow-tie topological features of metabolic networks and the functional significance. Chin. Sci. Bull. 52, 1036–1045 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-007-0143-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-007-0143-y

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