Multi-Scale Modularity and Motif Distributional Effect in Metabolic Networks

Abstract

Metabolism is a set of fundamental processes that play important roles in a plethora of biological and medical contexts. It is understood that the topological information of reconstructed metabolic networks, such as modular organization, has crucial implications on biological functions. Recent interpretations of modularity in network settings provide a view of multiple network partitions induced by different resolution parameters. Here we ask the question: How do multiple network partitions affect the organization of metabolic networks? Since network motifs are often interpreted as the super families of evolved units, we further investigate their impact under multiple network partitions and investigate how the distribution of network motifs influences the organization of metabolic networks. We studied Homo sapiens, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Escherichia coli metabolic networks; we analyzed the relationship between different community structures and motif distribution patterns. Further, we quantified the degree to which motifs participate in the modular organization of metabolic networks.