Symmetry Breaking and Adaptation: Evidence from a Toy Model of a Virus

Details Symmetry Breaking and Adaptation: Evidence from a Toy Model of a Virus Symmetry Breaking and Adaptation: Evidence from a Toy Model of a Virus

1997-08-06

arxiv.org/abs/adap-org/9708004v1

Nonlinear Sciences

Adaptation and Self-Organizing Systems

TeX source, 10 p., please email hwael or stephens for figures

Scientific paper

We argue that the phenomenon of symmetry breaking in genetics can enhance the adaptability of a species to changes in the environment. In the case of a virus, the claim is that the codon bias in the neutralization epitope improves the virus' ability to generate mutants that evade the induced immune response. We support our claim with a simple ``toy model'' of a viral epitope evolving in competition with the immune system. The effective selective advantage of a higher mutability leads to a dominance of codons that favour non-synonymous mutations. The results in this paper suggest the possibility of emergence of an algorithmic language in more complicated systems.

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