Nature Genetics

[Ronald Rousseau]

Dear Colleagues,

In the latest issue of Nature Genetics 35(2) (2003) Wuchty, Oltvai and
Barabasi (pp. 176-179) describe so-called motifs, as building blocks in the
evolution of yeast proteins. There is also an interesting comment on this
article by Alessandro Vespignani (pp. 118-119).

For the more mathematically inclined among you there are two interesting
aspects here. The first is that this theory seems somewhat similar to (a 2-dim
analogue; why don't the authors use 3-dim models?) Holland's theory of
building blocks for genetic algorithms (although this is not mentioned in the
Nature Genetics articles). The second is that Vespignani's article features a
beautiful figure of a real life, namely protein-protein interaction - not a
citation or collaboration - network.

Something to think about!

Best regards,


Ronald

**********************************************************
Ronald Rousseau
KHBO - Industrial Sciences and Technology
Zeedijk 101    B-8400  Oostende   Belgium
Guest Professor at the Library of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
Honorary Professor Henan Normal University (Xinxiang, China)
Former program chair 9th ISSI Conference - Beijing
E-mail: ronald.rousseau at khbo.be
web page:  users.pandora.be/ronald.rousseau