Static and dynamic characteristics of protein contact networks

TL;DR

This paper reviews the application of complex network analysis to protein contact networks, highlighting topological features, dynamical aspects, and potential regularities that could advance understanding of protein folding processes.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive review of empirical and theoretical studies on protein contact networks, emphasizing new insights into their topology and dynamics, and suggests directions for future research.

Findings

Identification of potential power-law distributions in contact networks

Preliminary models show non-random regularities in network patterns

Dynamic analysis reveals new questions about protein folding mechanisms

Abstract

The principles underlying protein folding remains one of Nature's puzzles with important practical consequences for Life. An approach that has gathered momentum since the late 1990's, looks at protein hetero-polymers and their folding process through the lens of complex network analysis. Consequently, there is now a body of empirical studies describing topological characteristics of protein macro-molecules through their contact networks and linking these topological characteristics to protein folding. The present paper is primarily a review of this rich area. But it delves deeper into certain aspects by emphasizing short-range and long-range links, and suggests unconventional places where "power-laws" may be lurking within protein contact networks. Further, it considers the dynamical view of protein contact networks. This closer scrutiny of protein contact networks raises new questions for further research, and identifies new regularities which may be useful to parameterize a network approach to protein folding. Preliminary experiments with such a model confirm that the regularities we identified cannot be easily reproduced through random effects. Indeed, the grand challenge of protein folding is to elucidate the process(es) which not only generates the specific and diverse linkage patterns of protein contact networks, but also reproduces the dynamic behavior of proteins as they fold. Keywords: network analysis, protein contact networks, protein folding