Multifractal characterization of protein contact networks

• We study protein contact networks by techniques proper for time series analysis.
• Time series generated from protein contact networks show persistence.
• Such time series present features in-between typical mono and multifractal signals.
• The multifractal spectra are embedded in a principal components space.
• Fluctuations with large magnitude are more characterizing than small fluctuations.

The multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis of time series is able to reveal the presence of long-range correlations and, at the same time, to characterize the self-similarity of the series. The rich information derivable from the characteristic exponents and the multifractal spectrum can be further analyzed to discover important insights into the underlying dynamical process. In this paper, we employ multifractal analysis techniques in the study of protein contact networks. To this end, initially a network is mapped to three different time series, each of which is generated by a stationary unbiased random walk. To capture the peculiarities of the networks at different levels, we accordingly consider three observables at each vertex: the degree, the clustering coefficient, and the closeness centrality. To compare the results with suitable references, we consider also instances of three well-known network models and two typical time series with pure monofractal and multifractal properties. The first result of notable interest is that time series associated to protein contact networks exhibit long-range correlations (strong persistence), which are consistent with signals in-between the typical monofractal and multifractal behavior. Successively, a suitable embedding of the multifractal spectra allows to focus on ensemble properties, which in turn gives us the possibility to make further observations regarding the considered networks. In particular, we highlight the different role that small and large fluctuations of the considered observables play in the characterization of the network topology.