Abstract

Genome-scale metabolic networks are widely used in industrial and medical biotechnology and complex networks methods are increasingly becoming important in the investigation of these models. The present paper performed a study ofHalobacterium salinarum metabolic network by structural and functional analysis. First, we extracted high-quality H. salinarum metabolic network model from a recent reconstruction and based on its “bow tie” structure, we then extracted and studied the giant strong component (GSC) with its functional significance. Global structural properties such as average path length, degree distribution and self-similar exponent were computed and it indicated that the GSC is also a small-world, scale-free and self-similar network. Furthermore, the top 10 hub metabolites and functional modules in giant strong component were studied with their biological significance.

Key words: Average path length, complex networks, degree distribution, giant strong component, metabolic network, modularity, scale-free, small-world, systems biology.