Figure 4
From: Upstream plasticity and downstream robustness in evolution of molecular networks
Protective effect of paralogs in a nematode worm C. elegans. The fraction of essential (non-viable RNAi phenotype [8]) proteins among all tested worm proteins as a function of PID to their most similar paralog in the worm genome. Note the apparent plateau between 70% and 100% PID. The plot in the inset shows the fraction of essential proteins among all RNAis tested in Ref. [8], while that in the main panel drops RNAis that are predicted [8] to target mRNA products of more than one gene. Note that while the graph in the main panel is qualitatively similar to that in Fig. 3B, in the inset the fraction of essential proteins at PID = 100% rises to its level for singleton proteins. Thus when mRNAs of highly similar paralogs are eliminated along with the targeted mRNA, the protective effect of paralogs totally disappears.