Analysis of the enzyme network involved in cattle milk production using graph theory

Understanding cattle metabolism and its relationship with milk products is important in bovine breeding. A systemic view could lead to consequences that will result in a better understanding of existing concepts. Topological indices and quantitative characterizations mostly result from the application of graph theory on biological data. In the present work, the enzyme network involved in cattle milk production was reconstructed and analyzed based on available bovine genome information using several public datasets (NCBI, Uniprot, KEGG, and Brenda). The reconstructed network consisted of 3605 reactions named by KEGG compound numbers and 646 enzymes that catalyzed the corresponding reactions. The characteristics of the directed and undirected network were analyzed using Graph Theory. The mean path length was calculated to be 4.39 and 5.41 for directed and undirected networks, respectively. The top 11 hub enzymes whose abnormality could harm bovine health and reduce milk production were determined. Therefore, the aim of constructing the enzyme centric network was twofold; first to find out whether such network followed the same properties of other biological networks, and second, to find the key enzymes. The results of the present study can improve our understanding of milk production in cattle. Also, analysis of the enzyme network can help improve the modeling and simulation of biological systems and help design desired phenotypes to increase milk production quality or quantity.