Quantum aspects of evolution: a contribution towards evolutionary explorations of genotype networks via quantum walks.

ABSTRACT: Quantum biology seeks to explain biological phenomena via quantum mechanisms, such as enzyme reaction rates via tunnelling and photosynthesis energy efficiency via coherent superposition of states. However, less effort has been devoted to study the role of quantum mechanisms in biological evolution. In this paper, we used transcription factor networks with two and four different phenotypes, and used classical random walks (CRW) and quantum walks (QW) to compare network search behaviour and efficiency at finding novel phenotypes between CRW and QW. In the network with two phenotypes, at temporal scales comparable to decoherence time T_D, QW are as efficient as CRW at finding new phenotypes. In the case of the network with four phenotypes, the QW had a higher probability of

SUBMITTER: Santiago-Alarcon D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7729038 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature