Analysis and Study of Cascading Failures in Gene Network

Abstract

Genome forms gene networks in terms of complicated interactions to realize its functions. Further research for gene networks can help to comprehend and predict many unknown functions of genome. In this work, cascading failure models of weighted gene networks are built and the robustness of the models is also analyzed and discussed. Based on the data of normal and lung adenocarcinoma stages, by simulating and analysing the cascading failures of the two gene network models, that cascading failures occur more likely in the networks for adenocarcinoma experimental groups than the one of normal control group is discovered. In the numerical experiments, we notice that nine genes of experimental group and eight genes of control group are of very strong destructibility for the robustness of experimental and control networks respectively. The failures of these genes can lead to the collapse or paralysis of the whole network. Therefore, we conclude that these genes might play important roles in keeping normal level or developing lung adenocarcinoma of organisms. When applying the methods of modeling and analysing cascading failures in gene network to other diseases’ data, biomedical scientists can be enlightened for understanding the mechanism of diseases and predicting the functions of significant genes.