Robustness of indispensable nodes in controlling protein-protein interaction network

TL;DR

This paper investigates the robustness of indispensable nodes in protein-protein interaction networks using structural controllability theory, revealing their sensitivity to structural changes and implications for understanding network control.

Contribution

It is the first systematic study examining how adding or removing interactions affects indispensable nodes in PPI networks.

Findings

Indispensable nodes are sensitive to structural changes.

Few edge modifications can alter the status of many indispensable nodes.

Results enhance understanding of control principles in PPI networks.

Abstract

Recently, the structural controllability theory has been introduced to analyze the Protein-Protein Interaction (PPI) network. The indispensable nodes, which their removal increase the number of driver nodes to control the network, are found essential in PPI network. However, the PPI network is far from complete and there may exist many false-positive or false-negative interactions, which promotes us to question: are these indispensable nodes robust to structural change? Here we systematically investigate the robustness of indispensable nodes of PPI network by removing and adding possible interactions. We found that the indispensable nodes are sensitive to the structural change and very few edges can change the type of many indispensable nodes. The finding may promote our understanding to the control principle of PPI network.