Structural correlations in bacterial metabolic networks.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Evolution of metabolism occurs through the acquisition and loss of genes whose products acts as enzymes in metabolic reactions, and from a presumably simple primordial metabolism the organisms living today have evolved complex and highly variable metabolisms. We have studied this phenomenon by comparing the metabolic networks of 134 bacterial species with known phylogenetic relationships, and by studying a neutral model of metabolic network evolution.

Results

We consider the 'union-network' of 134 bacterial metabolisms, and also the union of two smaller subsets of closely related species. Each reaction-node is tagged with the number of organisms it belongs to, which we denote organism degree (OD), a key concept in our study. Network analysis shows that common reac

SUBMITTER: Bernhardsson S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3033826 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature