The cost and capacity of signaling in the escherichia coli protein reaction network

Abstract

In systems biology new ways are required to analyze the large amount of existing data on regulation of cellular processes. Recent work can be roughly classified into either dynamical models of well-described subsystems, or coarse-grained descriptions of the topology of the molecular networks at the scale of the whole organism. In order to bridge these two disparate approaches one needs to develop simplified descriptions of dynamics and topological measures which address the propagation of signals in molecular networks. Transmission of a signal across a reaction node depends on the presence of other reactants. It will typically be more demanding to transmit a signal across a reaction node with more input links. Sending signals along a path with several subsequent reaction nodes also increases the constraints on the presence of other proteins in the overall network. Therefore counting in and out links along reactions of a potential pathway can give insight into the signaling properties of a particular molecular network. Here, we consider the directed network of protein regulation in E. coli, characterizing its modularity in terms of its potential to transmit signals. We demonstrate that the simplest measure based on identifying subnetworks of strong components, within which each node could send a signal to every other node, does indeed partition the network into functional modules. We suggest that the total number of reactants needed to send a signal between two nodes in the network can be considered as the cost associated with transmitting this signal. Similarly we define spread as the number of reaction products that could be influenced by transmission of a successful signal. Our considerations open for a new class of network measures that implicitly utilize the constrained repertoire of chemical modifications of any biological molecule. The counting of cost and spread connects the topology of networks to the specificity of signaling across the network. Thereby, we address the signaling specificity within and between modules, and show that in the regulation of E. coli there is a systematic reduction of the cost and spread for signals traveling over more than two intermediate reactions.