Modelling pathways crosstalks as closed walks and cycles on graphs

Definitions

Our project was to analyse and quantify interactions between different biological pathways. Those interactions are named closed walks. A closed walks is a sequence of interactions between genes that starts and ends at the same gene. A cycle is a closed walk that never goes twice through the same gene except for the gene from which the interactions start and end. A cross talk is a closed walk that goes through genes from two different pathways, meaning that those pathways communicate and regulate each other through their genes/proteins interactions.

Research questions

We had 3 research questions:

• Are some functional pathways more prone to crosstalk than the others? If so, which ones?​
• What are the genes that are apparent “entry points” for the crosstalk with other pathways?
• Is crosstalk a symmetric process, i.e. do both pathways “need each other” the same, or is one rather “exploiting” the other for input stimuli?​