| Full text | |
| Author(s): Show less - |
Cantor, Mauricio
;
Pires, Mathias M.
;
Marquitti, Flavia M. D.
;
Raimundo, Rafael L. G.
;
Sebastian-Gonzalez, Esther
;
Coltri, Patricia P.
;
Perez, S. Ivan
;
Barneche, Diego R.
;
Brandt, Debora Y. C.
;
Nunes, Kelly
;
Daura-Jorge, Fabio G.
;
Floeter, Sergio R.
;
Guimaraes, Jr., Paulo R.
Total Authors: 13
|
| Document type: | Journal article |
| Source: | PLoS One; v. 12, n. 2 FEB 6 2017. |
| Web of Science Citations: | 12 |
| Abstract | |
Biological networks pervade nature. They describe systems throughout all levels of biological organization, from molecules regulating metabolism to species interactions that shape ecosystem dynamics. The network thinking revealed recurrent organizational patterns in complex biological systems, such as the formation of semi-independent groups of connected elements (modularity) and non-random distributions of interactions among elements. Other structural patterns, such as nestedness, have been primarily assessed in ecological networks formed by two non-overlapping sets of elements; information on its occurrence on other levels of organization is lacking. Nestedness occurs when interactions of less connected elements form proper subsets of the interactions of more connected elements. Only recently these properties began to be appreciated in one-mode networks (where all elements can interact) which describe a much wider variety of biological phenomena. Here, we compute nestedness in a diverse collection of one-mode networked systems from six different levels of biological organization depicting gene and protein interactions, complex phenotypes, animal societies, metapopulations, food webs and vertebrate metacommunities. Our findings suggest that nestedness emerge independently of interaction type or biological scale and reveal that disparate systems can share nested organization features characterized by inclusive subsets of interacting elements with decreasing connectedness. We primarily explore the implications of a nested structure for each of these studied systems, then theorize on how nested networks are assembled. We hypothesize that nestedness emerges across scales due to processes that, although system-dependent, may share a general compromise between two features: specificity (the number of interactions the elements of the system can have) and affinity (how these elements can be connected to each other). Our findings suggesting occurrence of nestedness throughout biological scales can stimulate the debate on how pervasive nestedness may be in nature, while the theoretical emergent principles can aid further research on commonalities of biological networks. (AU) | |
| FAPESP's process: | 15/11985-3 - Evolution of cooperation among different species |
| Grantee: | Flávia Maria Darcie Marquitti |
| Support Opportunities: | Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral |
| FAPESP's process: | 14/21106-4 - Phenotypic divergence and ecological speciation in mutualisms: effects of spatial structure and interaction intimacy |
| Grantee: | Rafael Luís Galdini Raimundo |
| Support Opportunities: | Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral |
| FAPESP's process: | 11/11346-0 - Interaction parasites and coevolution of mutualisms |
| Grantee: | Flávia Maria Darcie Marquitti |
| Support Opportunities: | Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate |
| FAPESP's process: | 11/13054-6 - Natural selection and the structure, dynamics, and diversification of mutualistic assemblages |
| Grantee: | Rafael Luís Galdini Raimundo |
| Support Opportunities: | Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate |
| FAPESP's process: | 13/02738-7 - Characterization of the role of proteins involved in splicing regulation in eukaryotes |
| Grantee: | Patricia Pereira Coltri |
| Support Opportunities: | Regular Research Grants |
| FAPESP's process: | 13/22016-6 - The role of immigration on diversification dynamics of North American mammals |
| Grantee: | Mathias Mistretta Pires |
| Support Opportunities: | Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral |
| FAPESP's process: | 09/54422-8 - Structure and coevolutionary dynamics in mutualistic networks |
| Grantee: | Paulo Roberto Guimarães Junior |
| Support Opportunities: | Research Grants - Young Investigators Grants |
| FAPESP's process: | 12/09950-9 - Evolution of HLA genes: population differentiation and signatures of recent selection in native and admixed populations from Brazil |
| Grantee: | Kelly Nunes |
| Support Opportunities: | Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral |