New Scaling Relation for Information Transfer in Biological Networks

TL;DR

This paper investigates the informational architecture of biological networks, revealing they process more information and exhibit unique scaling relations compared to random networks, suggesting information processing is intrinsic to biological function.

Contribution

The study provides a rigorous analysis showing biological networks have distinct informational properties and scaling relations, highlighting the intrinsic role of information in biological systems.

Findings

Biological networks process more information than random networks.

Distinct scaling relations in information transfer differentiate biological from random networks.

Information processing correlates with network topology and function.

Abstract

Living systems are often described utilizing informational analogies. An important open question is whether information is merely a useful conceptual metaphor, or intrinsic to the operation of biological systems. To address this question, we provide a rigorous case study of the informational architecture of two representative biological networks: the Boolean network model for the cell-cycle regulatory network of the fission yeast S. pombe and that of the budding yeast S. cerevisiae. We compare our results for these biological networks to the same analysis performed on ensembles of two different types of random networks. We show that both biological networks share features in common that are not shared by either ensemble. In particular, the biological networks in our study, on average, process more information than the random networks. They also exhibit a scaling relation in information transferred between nodes that distinguishes them from either ensemble: even when compared to the ensemble of random networks that shares important topological properties, such as a scale-free structure. We show that the most biologically distinct regime of this scaling relation is associated with the dynamics and function of the biological networks. Information processing in biological networks is therefore interpreted as an emergent property of topology (causal structure) and dynamics (function). These results demonstrate quantitatively how the informational architecture of biologically evolved networks can distinguish them from other classes of network architecture that do not share the same informational properties.