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Species functional traits and abundance as drivers of multiplex ecological networks: first empirical quantification of inter-layer edge weights.

ABSTRACT: Many vertebrate species act as both plant pollinators and seed-dispersers, thus interconnecting these processes, particularly on islands. Ecological multilayer networks are a powerful tool to explore interdependencies between processes; however, quantifying the links between species engaging in different types of interactions (i.e. inter-layer edges) remains a great challenge. Here, we empirically measured inter-layer edge weights by quantifying the role of individually marked birds as both pollinators and seed-dispersers of Galápagos plant species over an entire year. Although most species (80%) engaged in both functions, we show that only a small proportion of individuals actually linked the two processes, highlighting the need to further consider intra-specific variability in individuals' functional roles. Furthermore, we found a high variation among species in linking both processes, i.e. some species contribute more than others to the modular organization of the multilayer network. Small and abundant species are particularly important for the cohesion of pollinator seed-dispersal networks, demonstrating the interplay between species traits and neutral processes structuring natural communities.

SUBMITTER: Hervias-Parejo S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7739492 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:BACKGROUND:Ligand-based virtual screening plays a fundamental part in the early drug discovery stage. In a virtual screening, a chemical library is searched for molecules with similar properties to a query molecule by means of a similarity function. The optimal assignment of chemical graphs has proven to be a valuable similarity function for many cheminformatic tasks, such as virtual screening. The optimal assignment assumes all atoms of a query molecule to be equally important, which is not realistic depending on the binding mode of a ligand. The importance of a query molecule's atoms can be integrated in the optimal assignment by weighting the assignment edges. We optimized the edge weights with respect to the virtual screening performance by means of evolutionary algorithms. Furthermore, we propose a visualization approach for the interpretation of the edge weights. RESULTS:We evaluated two different evolutionary algorithms, differential evolution and particle swarm optimization, for their suitability for optimizing the assignment edge weights. The results showed that both optimization methods are suited to optimize the edge weights. Furthermore, we compared our approach to the optimal assignment with equal edge weights and two literature similarity functions on a subset of the Directory of Useful Decoys using sophisticated virtual screening performance metrics. Our approach achieved a considerably better overall and early enrichment performance. The visualization of the edge weights enables the identification of substructures that are important for a good retrieval of ligands and for the binding to the protein target. CONCLUSIONS:The optimization of the edge weights in optimal assignment methods is a valuable approach for ligand-based virtual screening experiments. The approach can be applied to any similarity function that employs the optimal assignment method, which includes a variety of similarity measures that have proven to be valuable in various cheminformatic tasks. The proposed visualization helps to get a better understanding of the binding mode of the analyzed query molecule.

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Species functional traits and abundance as drivers of multiplex ecological networks: first empirical quantification of inter-layer edge weights.

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