Network-Thinking: Graphs to Analyze Microbial Complexity and Evolution

• Autores: Eduardo Corel, Philippe Lopez, Raphaël Méheust, Eric Bapteste
• Localización: Trends in microbiology, ISSN 0966-842X, Vol. 24, Nº. 3, 2016, págs. 224-237
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • The tree model and tree-based methods have played a major, fruitful role in evolutionary studies. However, with the increasing realization of the quantitative and qualitative importance of reticulate evolutionary processes, affecting all levels of biological organization, complementary network-based models and methods are now flourishing, inviting evolutionary biology to experience a network-thinking era. We show how relatively recent comers in this field of study, that is, sequence-similarity networks, genome networks, and gene families–genomes bipartite graphs, already allow for a significantly enhanced usage of molecular datasets in comparative studies. Analyses of these networks provide tools for tackling a multitude of complex phenomena, including the evolution of gene transfer, composite genes and genomes, evolutionary transitions, and holobionts.