We derive an expression for the variation between parallel trajectories in phenotypic evolution, extending the well known result that predicts the mean evolutionary path in adaptive dynamics or quantitative genetics. We show how this expression gives rise to the notion of fluctuation domains - parts of the fitness landscape where the rate of evolution is very predictable (due to fluctuation dissipation) and parts where it is highly variable (due to fluctuation enhancement). These fluctuation domains are determined by the curvature of the fitness landscape. Regions of the fitness landscape with positive curvature, such as adaptive valleys or branching points, experience enhancement. Regions with negative curvature, such as adaptive peaks, experience dissipation. We explore these dynamics in the ecological scenarios of implicit and explicit competition for a limiting resource.
In a population of size N, adaptive evolution is 2N times faster under Mendelian inheritance than the rate implied by Victorian theories of heredity and evolution.
A macroscopic theory for describing cellular states during steady-growth is presented, which is based on the consistency between cellular growth and molecular replication, as well as the robustness of phenotypes against perturbations. Adaptive changes in high-dimensional phenotypes were shown to be restricted within a low-dimensional slow manifold, from which a macroscopic law for cellular states was derived, which was confirmed by adaptation experiments on bacteria under stress. Next, the theory was extended to phenotypic evolution, leading to proportionality between phenotypic responses agai…
How adaptive evolution to one environmental stress improves or suppresses adaptation to another is an important problem in evolutionary biology. For instance, in microbiology, the evolution of bacteria to be resistant to different antibiotics is a critical issue that has been investigated as cross-resistance. In fact, recent experiments on bacteria have suggested that the cross-resistance of their evolution to various stressful environments can be predicted by the changes to their transcriptome upon application of stress. However, there are no studies so far that explain a possible theoretical…
Relationship among Phenotypic Plasticity, Genetic and Epigenetic Fluctuations, Robustness, and Evolovability; Waddington's Legacy revisited under the Spirit of Einstein
Neural codes appear efficient. Naturally, neuroscientists contend that an efficient process is responsible for generating efficient codes. They argue that natural selection is the efficient process that generates those codes. Although natural selection is an adaptive process, evolution itself, is not. Evolution consists of not only natural selection, but also neutral stochastic forces that can generate biological inefficiencies. The explanatory power of natural selection cannot be appealed to, without regards for the remaining evolutionary forces. In this paper, we aim to reformulate the expla…
Investigating the effect of adaptive optimal control function in epidemic dynamics: predictions and strategy evolution based on SIR/V game theoretic framework
A ubiquitous ~62 Myr periodic fluctuation superimposed on general trends in fossil biodiversity: II, Evolutionary dynamics associated with periodic fluctuation in marine diversity
Phylostratigraphy suggests that new genes are continually born de novo from non-genic sequences, and the genes that persist found new lineages, contributing to the adaptive evolution of organisms. While recent evidence supports the view that de novo gene birth is frequent and widespread, the mechanisms underlying this process are yet to be discovered. Here we hypothesize and examine a potential general mechanism of gene birth driven by the accumulation of beneficial mutations at non-genic loci. To demonstrate this possibility, we model this mechanism within the boundaries set by current knowle…