Nonlinear Dynamics in Gene Regulation Promote Robustness and Evolvability of Gene Expression Levels.

ABSTRACT: Cellular phenotypes underpinned by regulatory networks need to respond to evolutionary pressures to allow adaptation, but at the same time be robust to perturbations. This creates a conflict in which mutations affecting regulatory networks must both generate variance but also be tolerated at the phenotype level. Here, we perform mathematical analyses and simulations of regulatory networks to better understand the potential trade-off between robustness and evolvability. Examining the phenotypic effects of mutations, we find an inverse correlation between robustness and evolvability that breaks only with nonlinearity in the network dynamics, through the creation of regions presenting sudden changes in phenotype with small changes in genotype. For genotypes embedding low levels of nonlinearit

SUBMITTER: Steinacher A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4833316 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature