Sexual reproduction reshapes the genetic architecture of digital organisms Export

@article{citeulike:1629610, abstract = {Modularity and epistasis, as well as other aspects of genetic architecture, have emerged as central themes in evolutionary biology. Theory suggests that modularity promotes evolvability, and that aggravating (synergistic) epistasis among deleterious mutations facilitates the evolution of sex. Here, by contrast, we investigate the evolution of different genetic architectures using digital organisms, which are computer programs that self-replicate, mutate, compete and evolve. Specifically, we investigate how genetic architecture is shaped by reproductive mode. We allowed 200 populations of digital organisms to evolve for over 10000 generations while reproducing either asexually or sexually. For 10 randomly chosen organisms from each population, we constructed and analysed all possible single mutants as well as one million mutants at each mutational distance from 2 to 10. The genomes of sexual organisms were more modular than asexual ones; sites encoding different functional traits had less overlap and sites encoding a particular trait were more tightly clustered. Net directional epistasis was alleviating (antagonistic) in both groups, although the overall strength of this epistasis was weaker in sexual than in asexual organisms. Our results show that sexual reproduction profoundly influences the evolution of the genetic architecture.}, author = {Misevic, Dusan and Ofria, Charles and Lenski, Richard E.}, citeulike-article-id = {1629610}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2005.3338}, citeulike-linkout-1 = {http://view.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16615213}, citeulike-linkout-2 = {http://www.hubmed.org/display.cgi?uids=16615213}, day = {22}, doi = {10.1098/rspb.2005.3338}, journal = {Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences}, keywords = {artificial-life, genetics, modularity, motifs, sex}, month = {February}, number = {1585}, pages = {457--464}, posted-at = {2007-09-07 06:48:24}, priority = {5}, title = {Sexual reproduction reshapes the genetic architecture of digital organisms}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2005.3338}, volume = {273}, year = {2006} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:1629610 L3 - citeulike-article-id:1629610 N2 - Modularity and epistasis, as well as other aspects of genetic architecture, have emerged as central themes in evolutionary biology. Theory suggests that modularity promotes evolvability, and that aggravating (synergistic) epistasis among deleterious mutations facilitates the evolution of sex. Here, by contrast, we investigate the evolution of different genetic architectures using digital organisms, which are computer programs that self-replicate, mutate, compete and evolve. Specifically, we investigate how genetic architecture is shaped by reproductive mode. We allowed 200 populations of digital organisms to evolve for over 10000 generations while reproducing either asexually or sexually. For 10 randomly chosen organisms from each population, we constructed and analysed all possible single mutants as well as one million mutants at each mutational distance from 2 to 10. The genomes of sexual organisms were more modular than asexual ones; sites encoding different functional traits had less overlap and sites encoding a particular trait were more tightly clustered. Net directional epistasis was alleviating (antagonistic) in both groups, although the overall strength of this epistasis was weaker in sexual than in asexual organisms. Our results show that sexual reproduction profoundly influences the evolution of the genetic architecture. IS - 1585 JF - Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences EP - 464 TI - Sexual reproduction reshapes the genetic architecture of digital organisms VL - 273 SP - 457 KW - artificial-life KW - genetics KW - modularity KW - motifs KW - sex AU - Misevic, Dusan AU - Ofria, Charles AU - Lenski, Richard PY - 2006/02/22/ UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2005.3338 ER -