Ranking and Related Aspects in Metabolic Networks Profile

Abstract

Complex biological systems may be represented and analyzed as computable networks. Nodes and edges are the basic components of a network. Nodes represent units in the network, while edges represent the interactions between the units. Nodes can represent a wide-array of biological units, from individual organisms to individual neurons in the brain. Two important properties of a network are degree and betweenness. Degree is the number of edges that connect a node, while betweenness is a measure of how central a node is in a network. Nodes with high betweenness essentially serve as bridges between different portions of the network (i.e. interactions must pass through this node to reach other portions of the network). In social networks, nodes with high degree or high betweenness may play important roles in the overall composition of a network. Here metabolic networks were taken from KEGG database and were acted upon by the ranking code generated. The results were displayed and graphical representations were obtained that simplified the process of analyzing, interpreting, visualizing was resolved. The graphical representations demonstrated the node priority and thereby eased the work and effort required to analyze the network. The ranking algorithm used here counted the priority and thus displayed the important steps in metabolic networks and thereby metabolism process.