Exact quantification of cellular robustness in genome-scale metabolic networks.

ABSTRACT:

Motivation

Robustness, the ability of biological networks to uphold their functionality in spite of perturbations, is a key characteristic of all living systems. Although several theoretical approaches have been developed to formalize robustness, it still eludes an exact quantification. Here, we present a rigorous and quantitative approach for the structural robustness of metabolic networks by measuring their ability to tolerate random reaction (or gene) knockouts.

Results

In analogy to reliability theory, based on an explicit consideration of all possible knockout sets, we exactly quantify the probability of failure for a given network function (e.g. growth). This measure can be computed if the network's minimal cut sets (MSCs) are known. We show that even in genome-scale m

SUBMITTER: Gerstl MP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4795620 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature