Evolution of digital organisms at high mutation rates leads to survival of the flattest
Abstract
Darwinian evolution favours genotypes with high replication rates, a process called 'survival of the fittest'. However, knowing the replication rate of each individual genotype may not suffice to predict the eventual survivor, even in an asexual population. According to quasi-species theory, selection favours the cloud of genotypes, interconnected by mutation, whose average replication rate is highest. Here we confirm this prediction using digital organisms that self-replicate, mutate and evolve. Forty pairs of populations were derived from 40 different ancestors in identical selective environments, except that one of each pair experienced a 4-fold higher mutation rate. In 12 cases, the dominant genotype that evolved at the lower mutation rate achieved a replication rate >1.5-fold faster than its counterpart. We allowed each of these disparate pairs to compete across a range of mutation rates. In each case, as mutation rate was increased, the outcome of competition switched to favour the genotype with the lower replication rate. These genotypes, although they occupied lower fitness peaks, were located in flatter regions of the fitness surface and were therefore more robust with respect to mutations.
Additional Information
© 2001 Macmillan Magazines Ltd. Received 13 December 2000; Accepted 7 June 2001. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation. Part of this work as carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. J.L.W. acknowledges the support of an Axline SURF fellowship.Attached Files
Supplemental Material - 412331a0_S1.pdf
Supplemental Material - movie0.5.mpeg
Supplemental Material - movie1.5.mpeg
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 56230
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20150331-082348880
- NSF
- NASA/JPL
- Caltech Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF)
- Created
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2015-03-31Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-10Created from EPrint's last_modified field