Influence of degree correlations on network structure and stability in protein-protein interaction networks

Background: The existence of negative correlations between degrees of interacting proteins is being discussed since such negative degree correlations were found for the large-scale yeast protein-protein interaction (PPI) network of Ito et al. More recent studies observed no such negative correlations for high-confidence interaction sets. In this article, we analyzed a range of experimentally derived interaction networks to understand the role and prevalence of degree correlations in PPI networks. We investigated how degree correlations influence the structure of networks and their tolerance against perturbations such as the targeted deletion of hubs. Results: For each PPI network, we simulated uncorrelated, positively and negatively correlated reference networks. Here, a simple model was developed which can create different types of degree correlations in a network without changing the degree distribution. Differences in static properties associated with degree correlations were compa...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2007
• Where: BMCBI
• Authors: Caroline C. Friedel, Ralf Zimmer
• Keywords: BMCBI 2007, Correlations, Degree Correlations, Ppi Network