Network motifs and their origins.
PLoS Comput Biol
; 15(4): e1006749, 2019 04.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-30973867
ABSTRACT
Modern network science is a new and exciting research field that has transformed the study of complex systems over the last 2 decades. Of particular interest is the identification of small "network motifs" that might be embedded in a larger network and that indicate the presence of evolutionary design principles or have an overly influential role on system-wide dynamics. Motifs are patterns of interconnections, or subgraphs, that appear in an observed network significantly more often than in compatible randomized networks. The concept of network motifs was introduced into Systems Biology by Milo, Alon and colleagues in 2002, quickly revolutionized the field, and it has had a huge impact in wider scientific domains ever since. Here, we argue that the same concept and tools for the detection of motifs were well known in the ecological literature decades into the last century, a fact that is generally not recognized. We review the early history of network motifs, their evolution in the mathematics literature, and their recent rediscoveries.
Full text:
1
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Systems Biology
Type of study:
Clinical_trials
/
Prognostic_studies
Limits:
Humans
Language:
En
Journal:
PLoS Comput Biol
Journal subject:
BIOLOGIA
/
INFORMATICA MEDICA
Year:
2019
Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Israel