On the role of sparseness in the evolution of modularity in gene regulatory networks.

ABSTRACT: Modularity is a widespread property in biological systems. It implies that interactions occur mainly within groups of system elements. A modular arrangement facilitates adjustment of one module without perturbing the rest of the system. Therefore, modularity of developmental mechanisms is a major factor for evolvability, the potential to produce beneficial variation from random genetic change. Understanding how modularity evolves in gene regulatory networks, that create the distinct gene activity patterns that characterize different parts of an organism, is key to developmental and evolutionary biology. One hypothesis for the evolution of modules suggests that interactions between some sets of genes become maladaptive when selection favours additional gene activity patterns. The removal of

SUBMITTER: Espinosa-Soto C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5979046 | biostudies-literature | 2018 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature