Algebraic comparison of metabolic networks, phylogenetic inference, and metabolic innovation.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Comparison of metabolic networks is typically performed based on the organisms' enzyme contents. This approach disregards functional replacements as well as orthologies that are misannotated. Direct comparison of the structure of metabolic networks can circumvent these problems.

Results

Metabolic networks are naturally represented as directed hypergraphs in such a way that metabolites are nodes and enzyme-catalyzed reactions form (hyper)edges. The familiar operations from set algebra (union, intersection, and difference) form a natural basis for both the pairwise comparison of networks and identification of distinct metabolic features of a set of algorithms. We report here on an implementation of this approach and its application to the procaryotes.

Conclusion<

SUBMITTER: Forst CV 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1475643 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature