Commentary

Biomolecular network querying: a promising approach in systems biology

Shihua Zhang^1,2 , Xiang-Sun Zhang¹ and Luonan Chen^3,4,5,6

¹Academy of Mathematics and Systems Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100080, China

²Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China

³Institute of Systems Biology, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China

⁴Department of Electrical Engineering, Osaka Sangyo University, Osaka 574-8530, Japan

⁵ERATO Aihara Complexity Modelling Project, JST, Tokyo 153-8505, Japan

⁶Institute of Industrial Science, University of Tokyo, Tokyo 153-8505, Japan

author email corresponding author email

BMC Systems Biology 2008, 2:5doi:10.1186/1752-0509-2-5

Published:	18 January 2008

Abstract

The rapid accumulation of various network-related data from multiple species and conditions (e.g. disease versus normal) provides unprecedented opportunities to study the function and evolution of biological systems. Comparison of biomolecular networks between species or conditions is a promising approach to understanding the essential mechanisms used by living organisms. Computationally, the basic goal of this network comparison or 'querying' is to uncover identical or similar subnetworks by mapping the queried network (e.g. a pathway or functional module) to another network or network database. Such comparative analysis may reveal biologically or clinically important pathways or regulatory networks. In particular, we argue that user-friendly tools for network querying will greatly enhance our ability to study the fundamental properties of biomolecular networks at a system-wide level.