From Structure to Dynamics in Biological Networks

Banaji, Murad (2011) From Structure to Dynamics in Biological Networks. In: Design and Analysis of Biomolecular Circuits :. Springer, New York, pp. 73-92. ISBN 9781441967657

Abstract

Biological systems often display behaviour that is robust to considerable perturbation. In fact, experimental and computational work suggests that some behaviours are ‘structural’ in that they occur in all systems with particular qualitative features. In this chapter, some relationships between structure and dynamics in biological networks are explored. The emphasis is on chemical reaction networks, regarded as special cases of more general classes of dynamical systems termed interaction networks. The mathematical approaches described involve relating patterns in the Jacobian matrix to the dynamics of a system. Via a series of examples, it is shown how simple computations on matrices and related graphs can lead to strong conclusions about allowed behaviours.