Representing perturbed dynamics in biological network models
Gautier Stoll1,3 ,∗ Jacques Rougemont3 ,† and Felix Naef1,2,3‡
1
arXiv:q-bio/0702059v1 [q-bio.MN] 28 Feb 2007
3
NCCR Molecular Oncology, ch. des Boveresses 155, 1066 Epalinges, Switzerland
School of Life Sciences, ISREC, Ecole polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland and
3
Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Quartier Sorge-Genopode, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
We study the dynamics of gene activities in relatively small size biological networks (up to a few
tens of nodes), e.g. the activities of cell-cycle proteins during the mitotic cell-cycle progression.
Using the framework of deterministic discrete dynamical models, we characterize the dynamical
modifications in response to structural perturbations in the network connectivities. In particular,
we focus on how perturbations affect the set of fixed points and sizes of the basins of attraction.
Our approach uses two analytical measures: the basin entropy H and the perturbation size ∆, a
quantity that reflects the distance between the set of fixed points of the perturbed network to that
of the unperturbed network. Applying our approach to the yeast-cell cycle network introduced by
Li et al. provides a low dimensional and informative fingerprint of network behavior under large
classes of perturbations. We identify interactions that are crucial for proper network function, and
also pinpoints functionally redundant network connections. Selected perturbations exemplify the
breadth of dynamical responses in this cell-cycle model.
PACS numbers:
Keywords:
I.
INTRODUCTION
Recent experimental developments in the fields of genomics, e.g. whole genome DNA sequencing or proteomics, are opening possibilities for systems level studies
in biology [1, 2, 3, 4]. In particular, the notion that biological functions may rely on a large number of interconnected variables (for example genes) working in concert
has stimulated general theoretical interest about properties of biological networks [5]. Studies of the statistical properties of large (typically thousands of nodes)
biological networks have identified a number of functional building block, termed network motifs, that occur
more frequently than random [7]. These findings support the idea that some systems are designed around a
modular architecture, in which autonomous modules are
wired together to generate versatile biological functions
[1, 4, 8, 25]. While structural (or topological) properties are key for network characterization, functional
properties are ultimately encoded in dynamical, or timedependent changes in the state variables of the nodes.
The sizes of systems that can be modeled dynamically
are typically much smaller (10-100 nodes). One common
modeling approach, for example for the yeast cell-cycle
[10], is to simulate the nonlinear system of chemical rate
equations describing the putative biochemical processes.
Modeling approaches have been applied to a number of
systems, including the cell-cycle [10, 11], the lambdaphage switch in E. coli [9]. Although these models provide a detailed description, this approach suffers from the
∗ Electronic
address:
[email protected]
† Electronic address:
[email protected]
‡ Electronic address:
[email protected]
caveat that most parameters are currently not accessible
experimentally. In addition, the number of parameters
is typically about five per reaction, resulting in a prohibitively large parameter space. This last point makes it
difficult to grasp the full solution space of the model. Recent approaches based on sampling the parameter space
in optimal regions have been developed [19]. At the opposite end of model complexity, dynamical rules based
on boolean state variables have been useful for studying
more global dynamical properties of topological classes
of networks [20, 21]. In addition, boolean models have
been successfully applied to the yeast cell-cycle [22, 26]
and the body patterning in drosophila embryos [23, 24].
In this study, we develop a systematic approach to describe how the dynamical landscape of small (less than
about 50 nodes) boolean networks is affected by perturbations in the network connectivity. In particular, we
consider the basin entropy H, a quantity that considers the size distribution of the basins of attraction. We
complement entropy with a measure of distance between
the stable fixed points of a perturbed network and those
in the unperturbed network. This combination gives a
low-dimensional and compact representation of the patterns induced by a large number of perturbations. We
illustrate our methods using the yeast cell-cycle network
introduced in [22], and discuss examples of structural
perturbations producing a range of modified basins of
attraction.
II.
DEFINITIONS
Following [22] a network of N nodes can be represented
by a N × N adjacency matrix A, in which an activating
link between node i and node j is represented by Aij =
1 and an inhibiting link by Aij = −1. The possibility
2
of self-inhibitory (or activating links) Aii = ±1 is not
excluded. In the Boolean approximation, each node has
two possible states, so that the global state of all nodes
can be represented by a vector S, with Si = 1 when the
node i is on and Si = 0 if the node is off. The full phase
space containing 2N states is denoted by Λ.
A.
Boolean dynamics
A simple dynamical rule that characterizes the temporal evolution of the state variable can be defined following
[22], which is closely related to update rules applied in
perceptron models. If the network is in the state S(t) at
time t, the state at the next time-step S(t + 1) is given
by:
P
1 if Pj Aij Sj (t) > 0
Si (t + 1) = Si (t) if Pj Aij Sj (t) = 0
0 if
j Aij Sj (t) < 0
(1)
For a given network, we apply this rule to every possible initial condition in Λ. This defines orbits (trajectories) that must end in a limit cycle (periodic attractor)
since we are dealing with a dynamical system on a finite
space. A fixed point is a cycle of length one.
Accordingly, Λ can be decomposed into a disjoint union
SK
of K basins of attraction Bk of size dk : Λ = k=1 Bk .
In a biological network, the attractors correspond to
functional endpoints, and it is important that the states
in the attractors are consistent with observed data. For
example, by far the largest endpoint in the cell-cycle network of Li et al. (see appendix) corresponds to the stationary G1 phase in the cycle. Other systems are more
switch-like, for instance in signal transduction, where a
cell might change its state from growth to differentiation
according to an external trigger. To characterize these
attractors, we introduce the following definitions:
• We compute the number of attractors K: an attractor is a limit cycle or a fixed point. An attractor A
has a basin of attraction B which is the set of all
initial conditions whose orbit converges to A.
• The basin entropy H is defined as follows: let
pk = 2−N dk be the probability that an initial state
belongs to basin Bk . Then, the entropy reads
H := −
K
X
pk log (pk )
(2)
k=1
H is maximum (H = log(K)) if each state is its
own basin of size one, and minimum (H = 0) when
there is one single basin. H is a natural measure
for characterizing basin structures [27]. Because it
takes into account the relative basin sizes, it is quite
insensitive to appearance of small and biologically
irrelevant basins.
• The perturbation size ∆ measures the distance between attractors of a perturbed and a reference network: from every initial conditions, the Hamming
distance between the fixed points is computed, and
the average over all initial conditions is taken. More
precisely, if FPG (S) is the fixed point of the trajectory starting at S and generated by the network
G, then
1 X
∆G,G′ := N
(3)
HAM(FPG (S), FPG′ (S))
2
S
where HAM(·, ·) is the Hamming distance between
two boolean states, namely
1 X
|Si − Ti |
(4)
HAM(S, T) :=
N i
The value ∆ has the following interpretation: it is
the average probability (taken over all nodes) that,
for a random initial condition, the final state of a
node differs. In this study, the reference network
G will be the cell-cycle network of Li et al., which
has one very a large basin of attraction and several
smaller ones. If some trajectories in the perturbed
networks G′ end in a limit cycle, ∆ is defined as the
average of the Hamming distance along the cycle.
B.
Network models and perturbations
Our goal is to assess how network dynamics is affected by several types of perturbations. We consider
two classes: one which randomizes the adjacency matrix while keeping a number of topological characteristics
from the original network invariant. The second class
mimics biological perturbations, as would occur for example through mutations in the interaction partners that
constitute the network links.The two classes are defined
as follows:
• Shuffle (class I): all activating and inhibiting arrows
are cut in half and re-wired randomly. This ensure
that the connectivity at each node is conserved.
As compared to the Li et al. [22] study, we generate random networks that are more constrained,
since the connectivity at each node is forced to remain unchanged after randomization. Such perturbations are applied in the studies of network motifs
[4, 7].
• Remove (class II): the arrows are simply suppressed. We extend this class of perturbations beyond single link removal.
III.
RESULTS
We study the yeast cell-cycle network of Li et al. [22]
(the Yeast cell-cycle network or YCC ), in which a
3
boolean model reproducing the different phases of the
cycle is constructed (see appendix). This model has a
main fixed point attracting 86% of the intial conditions.
Biologically this state corresponds to the G1 stationary
phase of the cell-cycle, as reflected by the activities of
the respective nodes. Using computer simulations, the
authors further showed that the cell-cycle dynamics had
certain robustness properties when challenged with perturbations. In particular, it was shown that in a majority
of cases, removal of one link or addition of a link at random did not change much the size of the largest basin of
attraction. Finally, the studied network had unusual trajectory channeling properties, when compared to random
networks with equal number of nodes and links. Here we
extend the characterization of this model by introducing
a combination of measures to characterize the structure
of basins of attraction as they are modified by structural
perturbations. In particular we investigate the consequences of combined mutations and show that they can
lead to cancellation effect.
A.
Study of shuffled networks (Class I
perturbations)
This type of perturbation allows to study the dynamical characteristics of a biological network in comparison
with random networks belonging to a topological class.
Figure 1 shows the Number of attractors (K) and the
Entropy (H) of the YCC and randomly shuffled (Class
I) versions thereof.
The location of the reference network in the H − K
plane respective to the scatter of the perturbed networks
allows us to asses how typical a network behaves with
respect to a class. Accordingly, the YCC is atypical, as
seen by its marginal location in the lower left corner.
Indeed, this network has lower entropy and fewer basins
than most networks, consistent with [22].
B.
Study of mutated networks (Class II
perturbations)
The previous discussion shows how entropy characterizes the system of attractors. However, H contains only
information about the relative weights of the attractors,
irrespective of their biological relevance. For example a
perturbation can decrease the entropy while shifting the
fixed point away from from that in the unperturbed, biologically relevant state. For this reason we introduced
a second quantity, ∆ (Equation 3), a probabilistic measure of the change in the fixed point after perturbation.
Therefore, ∆ reflects the change in the biological relevance of the basin structure.
We first repeat Figure 1 for class II perturbations
which shows that networks with few perturbations cluster around the wild-type model (Figure 2A), while the
sread for networks with four perturbations resembles the
FIG. 1: Entropy vs. number of attractors after class I perturbation (shuffled arrows). The range of possible H values
is indicated by the dashed gray lines. The open red circle
represents the reference network, the other points show the
perturbed networks.
shuffled models (Figure 1). Turning to the measure of ∆,
we find that ∆-distribution (Figure 2B) is bimodal, showing two distinct populations of perturbations: (∆ . 0.2
and ∆ & 0.2). In the second case, the perturbed model
does not reproduce the biologically correct cell-cycle progression. But if ∆ is small, then the system of attractors
of the perturbed network is still consistent with the biology and entropy allows to discriminate between networks
with a larger or smaller main basin of attraction. For this
reason, the entropy and ∆ are complementary for describing the dynamical landscape (Figure 2C). The two
different modes in the ∆-histogram are clearly reflected
on this 2D representation. Noticeably, the ∆ values span
a broad range for any number of removed arrows, on
the other hand higher entropies are more frequent for
larger number (> 2) of removed arrows. Qualitatively,
the spread of points in the H − ∆ plane conveys a measure of robustness. Accordingly, the ∆ measure appears
more fragile than the entropy property, especially when
few arrows are removed.
We now interpret the different locations in the H − ∆
plane:
1. If ∆ is large (∆ & 0.2), the model does have attractor
states which coincide with the gene activities of the
different cell-cycles phases. Such perturbations are
specially interesting if the number of removed arrows
is small (dark colors). Such links are then essential for
the model, as their removal disrupts the cell-cycle very
4
C.
Examples of mutations
In the first example (Table II), the dynamics has a
large main basin of attraction like in the unperturbed
model (Table I). However, the fixed point is significantly
different from wild-type as the system is blocked in the a
state of the M-phase and cannot finish properly the cellcycle (see Appendix for the recapitulation of the wildtype mode from [22]).
Cln3 MBF SBF Cln1,2 Cdh1 Swi5 Cdc20,14 Clb5,6 Sic1 Clb1,2 Mcm1 %
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
1
0
0
0.8613
0
0
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0.0737
0
1
0
0
1
0
0
0
1
0
0
0.0532
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0.0043
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0.0034
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0.0034
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0.0004
TABLE I: Basins of attraction with their respective probabilities in (%) for the original YCC network. The largest basin
ends at the G1 stationary state. Entropy H = 0.543, Number
of attractors K = 7.
In the second example (Table III), the dynamics has
the same main fixed point as the wild-type, but with a
smaller basin of attraction, while the second biggest has
grown. Therefore the removed connection SBF → Cln1,2
contributes to the ability of the main fixed point to funnel
trajectories.
The third example (Table IV) is a model with four removed arrows which has the same main fixed point with a
slightly higher probability. Also, the second largest fixed
point is same as in the wild-type model. This indicates
that the effect of some mutations can be canceled by further mutations. While such cases exist, we found that
networks with several removed links that preserving the
unperturbed cell-cycle behavior are rare.
IV.
FIG. 2: Entropy, number of attractors and ∆ after class II
perturbation (removed arrows). Colors represent different
number of removed arrows: black for one removed arrows,
red for 2, green for 3, turquoise for 4 and yellow for more
than 4. A: same figure as for the class I perturbation, the
range of possible H values is indicated by the dashed gray
lines, the open blue circles represent the reference network.
B: Distribution of ∆. C: ∆ vs. H plot, the dashed gray line
represents the entropy of the reference network.
efficiently.
2. If ∆ is small and the entropy increases, the probability that the dynamics ends in the reference attractor
decreases demonstrating that the removed arrows contributed to the channeling properties of the system.
3. If ∆ is small and the entropy decreases, the main
attractor of the perturbed network has a stronger
attraction property. Some of these networks could be
considered as alternative cell-cycle models.
We illustrate these three regimes by examples:
CONCLUSION
We have proposed a systematic approach for studying
the dynamical attractor landscape of biological networks,
and their response to structural perturbations. In particular, we introduced a low dimensional representation of
the system of attractors, the entropy, and a probabilistic
measure in the perturbation size ∆. This enabled us to
study the global characteristics of network perturbation
in a compact and visually effective form. In a biological
context, this can provide hints to elucidate the dynamical
role of specific network links. Alternatively, the function
Cln3 MBF SBF Cln1,2 Cdh1 Swi5 Cdc20,14 Clb5,6 Sic1 Clb1,2 Mcm1 %
0
0
0
0
0
1
1
0
1
1
1
0.880
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
1
0
0
0.054
0
0
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0.027
0
1
0
0
1
0
0
0
1
0
0
0.015
0
0
0
0
1
1
1
0
1
1
1
0.010
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0.004
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0.003
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0.003
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0.000
TABLE II: Basins of attraction with their respective probabilities, when (Cdc20,Cdc14) → Clb1,2 and Sic1 → Clb1,2
are removed. Entropy = 0.549, Number of attractors = 9, ∆
= 0.41.
5
Cln3 MBF SBF Cln1,2 Cdh1 Swi5 Cdc20,14 Clb5,6 Sic1 Clb1,2 Mcm1 %
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
1
0
0
0.6669
0
1
1
0
1
0
0
0
1
0
0
0.1762
0
0
1
0
1
0
0
0
1
0
0
0.0654
0
1
0
0
1
0
0
0
1
0
0
0.0532
0
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0.0180
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0.0043
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0.0043
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0.0034
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0.0034
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0.0034
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0.0004
0
0
1
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0.0004
work was presented. The simulations were performed on
an Itanium2 cluster from HP/Intel at the Vital-IT facilities. FN ad GS acknowledge funding from the NCCR
Molecular Oncology program and NIH administrative
supplement to parent grant GM54339.
APPENDIX A: THE YEAST CELL-CYCLE
NETWORK OF LI ET AL.
TABLE III: Basins of attraction with their respective probabilities, when SBF → Cln1,2 is removed. Entropy H = 1.096,
Number of attractors K = 12, ∆ = 0.05.
Cln3 MBF SBF Cln1,2 Cdh1 Swi5 Cdc20,14 Clb5,6 Sic1 Clb1,2 Mcm1 %
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
1
0
0
0.8793
0
0
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0.0507
0
1
0
0
1
0
0
0
1
0
0
0.0356
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0.0268
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0.0034
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0.0034
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0.0004
TABLE IV: Basins of attraction with their respective probabilities, when (Cdc20,Cdc14) → Clb1,2, Clb1,2 → Mcm1,
Clb1,2 → Cdh1 and Clb1,2 → Swi5 are removed. Entropy
H = 0.523, Number of attractors K = 7, ∆ = 0.025.
of new and yet unobserved links can be predicted as in
[26], and imperfect starting models can be improved.
We applied this method to a model of the yeast cellcycle by Li et al. Using the measures introduced, we
have generalized the dynamical characterization of the
model using a broad range of perturbations. This has
enabled us to emphasize the breadth of dynamical behavior (Figure 2) induced by only few mutated links. Interestingly, we observed (Figure 2C) that the structure
of the system of attractors (H) behaves quite robustly
compared to the modification in the final states (∆), especially when the number of removed links is small (< 3).
We illustrated through examples the consequences of removing individual or groups of links. Interestingly it was
possible to remove up to four links while not affecting
the basin structure significantly. Tracking the dynamical
changes in the activity levels of proteins in a network is
a very high-dimensional problem. It therefore important
to be have few informative variables which allow one to
efficiently assess a large number of perturbed models at
once. We believe that basin entropy and distance to a
reference attractor are well suited for this purpose.
The following two tables are recapitulated from [22].
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
1→2 1→3
2→8
3→4 6→9 7→5 7→6 7→9 8→10 8→11 10→7 10→11
+
+
+
−
−
−
−
−
−
−
−
−
11→6 11→7 11→10 4→9 4→5 5→10 7→8 7→10 8→5
8→9
9→8 9→10
−
−
−
−
−
−
−
−
−
−
10→2 10→3 10→5 10→6 10→9 1→1 4→4 6→6 7→7 11→11
TABLE V: Adjacency matrix of the Yeast cell-cycle network.
The numbers refer to the ordering of the nodes as used in
Tables I-IV,VI. + (respectively −) represent activating (respectively repressing) links.
t
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
Cln3 MBF SBF Cln1,2 Cdh1 Swi5 C20,14 Clb5,6 Sic1 Clb1,2 Mcm1
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
1
1
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
1
1
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
1
1
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
1
1
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
1
1
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
1
1
1
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
1
1
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
1
1
1
1
0
0
0
Phase
START
G1
G1
G1
S
G2
M
M
M
M
M
G1
G1*
TABLE VI: This table represents the discrete time evolution
of the boolean states of the YCC network as it traverses the
different cell-cycle phases. Cdc20.14 has been abbreviated
C20,14; G1* indicates the stationary G1 phase.
Acknowledgments
We thank the organizers of the CompBioNets ’04 conference (Recife, Brazil) at which an initial version of this
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