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- Title
The Role of Pleiotropy and Epistasis on Evolvability and Robustness in a Two-Peak Fitness Landscape.
- Authors
Mehra, Priyanka; Hintze, Arend
- Abstract
Simple Summary: Understanding how organisms balance robustness against mutations with the ability to evolve is fundamental in evolutionary biology. This study uses a computational model of a two-peak fitness landscape separated by a fitness valley. We explore how different mutation rates and valley depths impact the evolutionary adaptation of organisms evolving from the lower to the higher peak. Our findings show that at low mutation rates, populations rarely cross the valley to reach the higher fitness peak. As mutation rates increase, crossing becomes more frequent, but those who find the peak first (pioneers) struggle to form a stable majority at the newfound peak. Instead, highly evolvable pioneers become increasingly more often outcompeted by more mutationally robust competitors. This suggests that while high evolvability facilitates crossing fitness valleys, long-term stability at the highest peak relies on greater mutational robustness. Additionally, our results highlight how genetic interactions like epistasis and pleiotropy mediate the trade-off between evolvability and robustness. These insights not only enhance our understanding of evolutionary dynamics but also inform the design of genetic algorithms by emphasizing the need to balance adaptability and stability for optimal performance. Understanding the balance between robustness and evolvability is crucial in evolutionary dynamics. This study aims to determine how varying mutation rates and valley depths affect this interplay during adaptation. Using a two-peak fitness landscape model requiring populations to cross a fitness valley to reach a higher peak, we investigate how mutation rates and valley depths influence both evolvability—the capacity to generate beneficial mutations—and mutational robustness, which stabilizes populations at the highest peak. Our experiments reveal that at low mutation rates, populations struggle to cross fitness valleys, reducing the occurrence of pioneers. As mutation rates increase, valley crossing becomes more frequent, but organisms forming a majority at the highest peak are less common and tend to arise at intermediate mutation rates. Although pioneers reach the highest peak, they are often replaced by more mutationally robust organisms that later form a majority. This suggests that while evolvability aids in valley crossing, long-term stability at the highest peak requires greater mutational robustness. Our findings highlight that adaptations in epistasis and pleiotropy facilitate the trade-off between evolvability and robustness, providing insights into how organisms navigate complex fitness landscapes. These results can also inform the design of genetic algorithms that balance evolvability with robustness to optimize outcomes.
- Subjects
GENETIC algorithms; VALLEYS; BIOLOGY
- Publication
Biology (2079-7737), 2024, Vol 13, Issue 12, p1003
- ISSN
2079-7737
- Publication type
Academic Journal
- DOI
10.3390/biology13121003