The emergence of modularity in biological systems.

In this review, we discuss modularity and hierarchy in biological systems. We review examples from protein structure, genetics, and biological networks of modular partitioning of the geometry of biological space. We review theories to explain modular organization of biology, with a focus on explaining how biology may spontaneously organize to a structured form. That is, we seek to explain how biology nucleated from among the many possibilities in chemistry. The emergence of modular organization of biological structure will be described as a symmetry-breaking phase transition, with modularity as the order parameter. Experimental support for this description will be reviewed. Examples will be presented from pathogen structure, metabolic networks, gene networks, and protein-protein interaction networks. Additional examples will be presented from ecological food networks, developmental pathways, physiology, and social networks.

• Publication year

  2011

• Venue

  Physics of Life Reviews

• Publication date

  2011-06-01

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine, Physics

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1016/j.plrev.2011.02.003arXiv 1204.5999PMID 21353651PMCID PMC4477837
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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