Protein contact network topology: a natural language for allostery

Protein molecules work as a whole, so that any local perturbation may resonate on the entire structure: allostery deals with this general property of protein molecules. It is worth noting a perturbation does not necessarily involve a conformational change but, more generally, it travels across the structure as an ‘energy signal’. The atomic interactions within the network provide the structural support for this ‘signaling highway’. Network descriptors, capturing network signaling efficiency, explain allostery in terms of signal transmission. In this review we will survey the key applications of graph theory to protein allostery. The complex network approach introduces a new perspective in biochemistry; as for applications, the development of new drugs relying on allosteric effects (allo-network drugs) represents a promising avenue of contact network formalism.