Some results on topological colored motifs in metabolic networks

In this work, we address the topological colored motif search problem in metabolic networks. This problem is a concern in biology, which seeks to describe the functions and the evolution of metabolism. Recently, several variations of this problem have been studied. Here, we present some hardness results for finding motifs. Furthermore, we describe the first polynomial algorithm for the case in which the motif is a colorful tree. We also detail a data structure that allows finding all of these types of motifs in a metabolic network.