Structural characteristics in network control of molecular multiplex networks.

Numerous real-world systems can be naturally modeled as multilayer networks, providing an efficient tool to characterize these complex systems. Although recent progress in understanding the controlling of synthetic multiplex networks, how to control real multilayer systems remains poorly understood. Here, we explore the controllability and energy requirement of molecular multiplex networks coupled by transcriptional regulatory network (TRN) and protein-protein interaction (PPI) network from the perspective of network structural characteristics. Our findings reveal that the driver nodes tend to avoid essential or pathogen-related genes. However, imposing external inputs on these essential or pathogen-related genes can remarkably reduce the energy cost, implying their crucial role in network control. Moreover, we find that the minimal driver nodes, as well as the energy required, are associated with disassortative coupling between TRN and PPI networks. Our results provide a comprehensive understanding of the roles of genes in biology and network control across several species.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
(Copyright: © 2023 Yuan et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)