Challenges and Limitations of Biological Network Analysis

Abstract

High-Throughput technologies are producing an increasing volume of data that needs large amounts of data storage, effective data models and efficient, possibly parallel analysis algorithms. Pathway and interactomics data are represented as graphs and add a new dimension of analysis, allowing, among other features, graph-based comparison of organisms’ properties. For instance, in biological pathway representation, the nodes can represent proteins, RNA and fat molecules, while the edges represent the interaction between molecules. Otherwise, biological networks such as Protein–Protein Interaction (PPI) Networks, represent the biochemical interactions among proteins by using nodes that model the proteins from a given organism, and edges that model the protein–protein interactions, whereas pathway networks enable the representation of biochemical-reaction cascades that happen within the cells or tissues. In this paper, we discuss the main models for standard representation of pathways and PPI networks, the data models for the representation and exchange of pathway and protein interaction data, the main databases in which they are stored and the alignment algorithms for the comparison of pathways and PPI networks of different organisms. Finally, we discuss the challenges and the limitations of pathways and PPI network representation and analysis. We have identified that network alignment presents a lot of open problems worthy of further investigation, especially concerning pathway alignment.