Highly designable phenotypes and mutational buffers emerge from a systematic mapping between network topology and dynamic output.

ABSTRACT: Deciphering the design principles for regulatory networks is fundamental to an understanding of biological systems. We have explored the mapping from the space of network topologies to the space of dynamical phenotypes for small networks. Using exhaustive enumeration of a simple model of three- and four-node networks, we demonstrate that certain dynamical phenotypes can be generated by an atypically broad spectrum of network topologies. Such dynamical outputs are highly designable, much like certain protein structures can be designed by an unusually broad spectrum of sequences. The network topologies that encode a highly designable dynamical phenotype possess two classes of connections: a fully conserved core of dedicated connections that encodes the stable dynamical phenotype and a partia

SUBMITTER: Nochomovitz YD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1449667 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature