Biology – Quantitative Biology – Populations and Evolution
Scientific paper
2006-12-15
Biosystems 90, 475-485(2007)
Biology
Quantitative Biology
Populations and Evolution
to be published in Biosystems
Scientific paper
RNA secondary structure is an important computational model to understand how genetic variation maps into phenotypic (structural) variation. Evolutionary innovation in RNA structures is facilitated by neutral networks, large connected sets of RNA sequences that fold into the same structure. Our work extends and deepens previous studies on neutral networks. First, we show that even the 1-mutant neighborhood of a given sequence (genotype) G0 with structure (phenotype) P contains many structural variants that are not close to P. This holds for biological and generic RNA sequences alike. Second, we analyze the relation between new structures in the 1-neighborhoods of genotypes Gk that are only a moderate Hamming distance k away from G0, and the structure of G0 itself, both for biological and for generic RNA structures. Third, we analyze the relation between mutational robustness of a sequence and the distances of structural variants near this sequence. Our findings underscore the role of neutral networks in evolutionary innovation, and the role that high robustness can play in diminishing the potential for such innovation.
Martin Olivier C.
Sumedha
Wagner Andreas
No associations
LandOfFree
New structural variation in evolutionary searches of RNA neutral networks does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with New structural variation in evolutionary searches of RNA neutral networks, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and New structural variation in evolutionary searches of RNA neutral networks will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-133079