Evolutionary conservation and over-representation of functionally enriched network patterns in the yeast regulatory network

Background  

Localized network patterns are assumed to represent an optimal design principle in different biological networks. A widely used method for identifying functional components in biological networks is looking for network motifs – over-represented network patterns. A number of recent studies have undermined the claim that these over-represented patterns are indicative of optimal design principles and question whether localized network patterns are indeed of functional significance. This paper examines the functional significance of regulatory network patterns via their biological annotation and evolutionary conservation.