The hypothesis that biological systems are “modular” is widely accepted in systems biology, and there is a large body of literature on the topic. However, at this time there is no consensus what the right definition of module is, whether it should be a structural or a dynamic property or both, and what the concrete benefits of modularity are for an organism. Here are some expository papers that outline the main techniques and difficulties to understand modularity.
Expository Papers
- Claus Kadelka, Matthew Wheeler, Alan Veliz-Cuba, David Murrugarra, et al.. Modularity of biological systems: a link between structure and function.Journal Of The Royal Society Interface. 2023-10. 10.1098/rsif.2023.0505