Summary

After the Cytoscape retreat held in San Diego in 2005, it became obvious that Cytoscape needs to support metanodes. A metanode is a graph node that contains a subgraph. There are many different ways of modeling and visualizing metanodes, depending on the biological application in question.

The objective is to:

• Clearly identify the biological applications for metanodes
• Clearly define what type of metanode visualization and modeling is needed for each one of these applications
• Come up with a project plan to implement these different ways of visualizing/modeling metanodes

This RFC is a forum for discussing each one of these points.

Iliana Avila developed a Cytoscape plugin that implements one possible way of modeling and visualizing metanodes. This plugin can be used as a concept plugin, so that everyone involved has a clearer idea of what is a metanode, and how it can be used. It is by no means the final implementation of metanodes. See "Concept Plugin" section in this Wiki to learn how to obtain plugin.

Biological Applications and their MetaNode Needs

Strategy

Concept Plugin