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The Effects of Feedback Loops on the Network Robustness by using a Random Boolean Network Model  

Kwon, Yung-Keun (울산대학교 컴퓨터정보통신공학부)
Publication Information
Journal of KIISE:Computer Systems and Theory / v.37, no.3, 2010 , pp. 138-146 More about this Journal
Abstract
It is well known that many biological networks are very robust against various types of perturbations, but we still do not know the mechanism of robustness. In this paper, we find that there exist a number of feedback loops in a real biological network compared to randomly generated networks. Moreover, we investigate how the topological property affects network robustness. To this end, we properly define the notion of robustness based on a Boolean network model. Through extensive simulations, we show that the Boolean networks create a nearly constant number of fixed-point attractors, while they create a smaller number of limit-cycle attractors as they contain a larger number of feedback loops. In addition, we elucidate that a considerably large basin of a fixed-point attractor is generated in the networks with a large number of feedback loops. All these results imply that the existence of a large number of feedback loops in biological networks can be a critical factor for their robust behaviors.
Keywords
Robustness; Boolean networks; feedback loops; fixed-point attractors; limit-cycle attractors;
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