dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaEvolution of Robustness to Noise and Mutation in Gene Expression Dynamics
| Authors | Kunihiko Kaneko |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | q-bio/0703005 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/q-bio/0703005 |
| DOI | 10.1371/journal.pone.0000434 |
Abstract
Phenotype of biological systems needs to be robust against mutation in order to sustain themselves between generations. On the other hand, phenotype of an individual also needs to be robust against fluctuations of both internal and external origins that are encountered during growth and development. Is there a relationship between these two types of robustness, one during a single generation and the other during evolution? Could stochasticity in gene expression have any relevance to the evolution of these robustness? Robustness can be defined by the sharpness of the distribution of phenotype; the variance of phenotype distribution due to genetic variation gives a measure of `genetic robustness' while that of isogenic individuals gives a measure of `developmental robustness'. Through simulations of a simple stochastic gene expression network that undergoes mutation and selection, we show that in order for the network to acquire both types of robustness, the phenotypic variance induced by mutations must be smaller than that observed in an isogenic population. As the latter originates from noise in gene expression, this signifies that the genetic robustness evolves only when the noise strength in gene expression is larger than some threshold. In such a case, the two variances decrease throughout the evolutionary time course, indicating increase in robustness. The results reveal how noise that cells encounter during growth and development shapes networks' robustness to stochasticity in gene expression, which in turn shapes networks' robustness to mutation. The condition for evolution of robustness as well as relationship between genetic and developmental robustness is derived through the variance of phenotypic fluctuations, which are measurable experimentally.
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"abstract": "Phenotype of biological systems needs to be robust against mutation in order\nto sustain themselves between generations. On the other hand, phenotype of an\nindividual also needs to be robust against fluctuations of both internal and\nexternal origins that are encountered during growth and development. Is there a\nrelationship between these two types of robustness, one during a single\ngeneration and the other during evolution? Could stochasticity in gene\nexpression have any relevance to the evolution of these robustness? Robustness\ncan be defined by the sharpness of the distribution of phenotype; the variance\nof phenotype distribution due to genetic variation gives a measure of `genetic\nrobustness\u0027 while that of isogenic individuals gives a measure of\n`developmental robustness\u0027. Through simulations of a simple stochastic gene\nexpression network that undergoes mutation and selection, we show that in order\nfor the network to acquire both types of robustness, the phenotypic variance\ninduced by mutations must be smaller than that observed in an isogenic\npopulation. As the latter originates from noise in gene expression, this\nsignifies that the genetic robustness evolves only when the noise strength in\ngene expression is larger than some threshold. In such a case, the two\nvariances decrease throughout the evolutionary time course, indicating increase\nin robustness. The results reveal how noise that cells encounter during growth\nand development shapes networks\u0027 robustness to stochasticity in gene\nexpression, which in turn shapes networks\u0027 robustness to mutation. The\ncondition for evolution of robustness as well as relationship between genetic\nand developmental robustness is derived through the variance of phenotypic\nfluctuations, which are measurable experimentally.",
"arxiv_id": "q-bio/0703005",
"authors": [
"Kunihiko Kaneko"
],
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"doi": "10.1371/journal.pone.0000434",
"title": "Evolution of Robustness to Noise and Mutation in Gene Expression Dynamics",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/q-bio/0703005"
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