Abstract

The evolution of protein-protein interactions over time has led to a complex network whose character is modular in the cellular function and highly correlated in its connectivity. The question of the characterization and emergence of modularity following principles of evolution remains an important challenge as there is no encompassing theory to explain the resulting modular topology. Here, we perform an empirical study of the yeast protein-interaction network. We find a novel large-scale modular organization of the functional classes of proteins characterized in terms of scale-invariant laws of modularity. We develop a mathematical framework and demonstrate a relationship between the modular structure and the evolution growth rate of the interactions, conserved proteins, and topological length-scales in the system revealing a hierarchy of mutational events giving rise to the modular topology. These results are expected to apply to other complex networks providing a general theoretical framework to describe their modular organization and dynamics.

Description

[1006.2761] Unraveling the modular evolution of the yeast protein interaction network

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