HOW FAR AND HOW FAST CAN ONE MOVE ON NEUTRAL NETWORK

A central theme in systems biology is to reveal the intricate relationship between structure and dynamics of many complex biological networks. Using Boolean models that describe yeast cell cycle process, we developed a unique logic-based theoretical framework to quantitatively determine the structure-dynamics mapping, also known as genotype–phenotype mapping. Moreover, under the dominant inhibition condition, we used a superposition property to show rigorously that the neutral network — the network of all possible structures that encode the same dynamics and are connected via single interaction mutations — forms one giant connected and conductive component. This may help shed light on the evolution landscape of biological networks based on the distance and speed a network can evolve on this neutral network.

系统生物学的一个核心主题是揭示许多复杂生物网络的结构与动态之间的复杂关系。利用描述酵母细胞周期过程的布尔模型，我们开发了一个独特的基于逻辑的理论框架，以定量确定结构 - 动态映射，也称为基因型 - 表型映射。此外，在显性抑制条件下，我们利用叠加性质严格表明，中性网络——编码相同动态且通过单次相互作用突变相连的所有可能结构的网络——形成一个巨大的连通且导电的组件。这可能有助于根据网络在这个中性网络上的演化距离和速度来阐明生物网络的演化图景。