Intrinsic properties of Boolean dynamics in complex networks

J Theor Biol. 2009 Feb 7;256(3):351-69. doi: 10.1016/j.jtbi.2008.10.014. Epub 2008 Oct 29.

Abstract

We study intrinsic properties of attractor in Boolean dynamics of complex networks with scale-free topology, comparing with those of the so-called Kauffman's random Boolean networks. We numerically study both frozen and relevant nodes in each attractor in the dynamics of relatively small networks (20<or=N<or=200). We investigate numerically robustness of an attractor to a perturbation. An attractor with cycle length of l(c) in a network of size N consists of l(c) states in the state space of 2(N) states; each attractor has the arrangement of N nodes, where the cycle of attractor sweeps l(c) states. We define a perturbation as a flip of the state on a single node in the attractor state at a given time step. We show that the rate between unfrozen and relevant nodes in the dynamics of a complex network with scale-free topology is larger than that in Kauffman's random Boolean network model. Furthermore, we find that in a complex scale-free network with fluctuation of the in-degree number, attractors are more sensitive to a state flip for a highly connected node (i.e. input-hub node) than to that for a less connected node. By some numerical examples, we show that the number of relevant nodes increases, when an input-hub node is coincident with and/or connected with an output-hub node (i.e. a node with large output-degree) one another.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Computer Simulation*
  • Gene Expression Regulation*
  • Gene Regulatory Networks*
  • Humans
  • Models, Genetic*
  • Nonlinear Dynamics