Conserved Control Path in Multilayer Networks

The determination of directed control paths in complex networks is important because control paths indicate the structure of the propagation of control signals through edges. A challenging problem is to identify them in complex networked systems characterized by different types of interactions that form multilayer networks. In this study, we describe a graph pattern called the conserved control path, which allows us to model a common control structure among different types of relations. We present a practical conserved control path detection method (CoPath), which is based on a maximum-weighted matching, to determine the paths that play the most consistent roles in controlling signal transmission in multilayer networks. As a pragmatic application, we demonstrate that the control paths detected in a multilayered pan-cancer network are statistically more consistent. Additionally, they lead to the effective identification of drug targets, thereby demonstrating their power in predicting key pathways that influence multiple cancers.