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Do Motifs Reflect Evolved Function? – No Convergent Evolution of Genetic Regulatory Network Subgraph Topologies

<28> This paper puts to the test the hypothesis that recurrent patterns in networks ("motifs") reflect a general context in which particular functions are achieved efficiently. Motifs would appear to have developed over and over in different surroundings, and should, therefore, be the product of convergent evolution. However, in this study no evidence whatsoever was found to support this hypothesis. The paper argues that motifs should be considered within the context of the larger network function, rather than in a context of sparsely connected functional modules, and constitutes one of the first evidence-based critiques of network motif identification and interpretation.