The organization of biological sequences into constrained and unconstrained parts determines fundamental properties of genotype-phenotype maps.

ABSTRACT: Biological information is stored in DNA, RNA and protein sequences, which can be understood as genotypes that are translated into phenotypes. The properties of genotype-phenotype (GP) maps have been studied in great detail for RNA secondary structure. These include a highly biased distribution of genotypes per phenotype, negative correlation of genotypic robustness and evolvability, positive correlation of phenotypic robustness and evolvability, shape-space covering, and a roughly logarithmic scaling of phenotypic robustness with phenotypic frequency. More recently similar properties have been discovered in other GP maps, suggesting that they may be fundamental to biological GP maps, in general, rather than specific to the RNA secondary structure map. Here we propose that the above propert

SUBMITTER: Greenbury SF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4707848 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature