Evolutionary algorithms are better than heuristic algorithms at finding protein complexes in protein-protein interaction networks (PPINs). Many of these algorithms depend on their standard frameworks, which are based on topology. Further, many of these algorithms have been exclusively examined on networks with only reliable interaction data. The main objective of this paper is to extend the design of the canonical and topological-based evolutionary algorithms suggested in the literature to cope with noisy PPINs. The design of the evolutionary algorithm is extended based on the functional domain of the proteins rather than on the topological domain of the PPIN. The gene ontology annotation in each molecular function, biological process, and cellular component is used to get the functional domain. The reliability of the proposed algorithm is examined against the algorithms proposed in the literature. To this end, a yeast protein-protein interaction dataset is used in the assessment of the final quality of the algorithms. To make fake negative controls of PPIs that are wrongly informed and are linked to the high-throughput interaction data, different noisy PPINs are created. The noisy PPINs are synthesized with a different and increasing percentage of misinformed PPIs. The results confirm the effectiveness of the extended evolutionary algorithm design to utilize the biological knowledge of the gene ontology. Feeding EA design with GO annotation data improves reliability and produces more accurate detection results than the counterpart algorithms.
