Emergence of two power-laws in evolution of biochemical network; embedding abundance distribution into topology

Abstract

The evolutionary origin of universal statistics in biochemical reaction networks is studied, to explain the power-law distribution of reaction links and the power-law distributions of chemical abundances. Using cell models with catalytic reaction networks, we confirmed that the power-law distribution in abundances of chemicals emerges by the selection of cells with higher growth speeds, as suggested in our previous study. Through the further evolution, this inhomogeneity in chemical abundances is shown to be embedded in the distribution of links, leading to the power-law distribution. These findings provide novel insights into the nature of network evolution in living cells. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006.