Phenotype Bias Determines How Natural RNA Structures Occupy the Morphospace of All Possible Shapes.

ABSTRACT: Morphospaces-representations of phenotypic characteristics-are often populated unevenly, leaving large parts unoccupied. Such patterns are typically ascribed to contingency, or else to natural selection disfavoring certain parts of the morphospace. The extent to which developmental bias, the tendency of certain phenotypes to preferentially appear as potential variation, also explains these patterns is hotly debated. Here we demonstrate quantitatively that developmental bias is the primary explanation for the occupation of the morphospace of RNA secondary structure (SS) shapes. Upon random mutations, some RNA SS shapes (the frequent ones) are much more likely to appear than others. By using the RNAshapes method to define coarse-grained SS classes, we can directly compare the frequencies tha

SUBMITTER: Dingle K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8763027 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature