Complex Networks Reveal Biological Functions of START Domains in Rice: Insights from Computational Systems Biology

With the advancement of high throughput technologies, there has been a massive surge in the omics data generation and there is a growing need to integrate this data gain insights into the patterns that shape biological interactions. Complex networks not only enable representation of such interactions, but also offer a mechanism for visualization and understanding of big data at a systems level. In this work, we use a complex network approach to investigate functions of the plant amplified StAR-related lipid transfer (START) domains in rice. We analyse the data at three levels; namely the transcriptome, proteome, and regulome. Each of these distinct datasets was superimposed after generation of the respective co-expression, protein-protein interaction, and gene regulatory networks for rice START genes, to reveal domain specific features in the family. This work thus serves as a protocol for network-based approaches to understand biological processes of genes and to complement experimental strategy.