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In this work, we present a method for generating an adjacency matrix encoding a typical protein contact network. This work constitutes a follow-up to our recent work (Livi et al., 2015), whose aim was to estimate the relative contribution of different topological features in discovering of the unique properties of protein structures. We perform a genetic algorithm based optimization in order to modify the matrices generated with the procedures explained in (Livi et al., 2015). Our objective here is to minimize the distance with respect to a target spectral density, which is elaborated using the normalized graph Laplacian representation of graphs. Such a target density is obtained by averaging the kernel-estimated densities of a class of experimental protein maps having different dimensions. This is possible given the bounded-domain property of the normalized Laplacian spectrum. By exploiting genetic operators designed for this specific problem and an exponentially-weighted objective function, we are able to reconstruct adjacency matrices representing networks of varying size whose spectral density is indistinguishable from the target. The topological features of the optimized networks are then compared to the real protein contact networks and they show an increased similarity with respect to the starting networks. Subsequently, the statistical properties of the spectra of the newly generated matrices are analyzed by employing tools borrowed from random matrix theory. The nearest neighbors spacing distribution of the spectra of the generated networks indicates that also the (short-range) correlations of the Laplacian eigenvalues are compatible with those of real proteins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study the structure and dynamical properties of protein contact networks with respect to other biological networks, together with simulated archetypal models acting as probes. We consider both classical topological descriptors, such as modularity and statistics of the shortest paths, and different interpretations in terms of diffusion provided by the discrete heat kernel, which is elaborated from the normalized graph Laplacians. A principal component analysis shows high discrimination among the network types, by considering both the topological and heat kernel based vector characterizations. Furthermore, a canonical correlation analysis demonstrates the strong agreement among those two characterizations, providing thus an important justification in terms of interpretability for the heat kernel. Finally, and most importantly, the focused analysis of the heat kernel provides a way to yield insights on the fact that proteins have to satisfy specific structural design constraints that the other considered networks do not need to obey. Notably, the heat trace decay of an ensemble of varying-size proteins denotes subdiffusion, a peculiar property of proteins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis of time series is able to reveal the presence of long-range correlations and, at the same time, to characterize the self-similarity of the series. The rich information derivable from the characteristic exponents and the multifractal spectrum can be further analyzed to discover important insights into the underlying dynamical process. In this paper, we employ multifractal analysis techniques in the study of protein contact networks. To this end, initially a network is mapped to three different time series, each of which is generated by a stationary unbiased random walk. To capture the peculiarities of the networks at different levels, we accordingly consider three observables at each vertex: the degree, the clustering coefficient, and the closeness centrality. To compare the results with suitable references, we consider also instances of three well-known network models and two typical time series with pure monofractal and multifractal properties. The first result of notable interest is that time series associated to protein contact networks exhibit long-range correlations (strong persistence), which are consistent with signals in-between the typical monofractal and multifractal behavior. Successively, a suitable embedding of the multifractal spectra allows to focus on ensemble properties, which in turn gives us the possibility to make further observations regarding the considered networks. In particular, we highlight the different role that small and large fluctuations of the considered observables play in the characterization of the network topology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]