发育层的能力改变形态发生人工胚胎模型中的演化动力学
Competency of the Developmental Layer Alters Evolutionary Dynamics in an Artificial Embryogeny Model of Morphogenesis
摘要：
生物基因型不直接编码表型;发育生理学是控制层，将基因组与通过选择确定的能力分开。一个关键的方面是能力，因为细胞不是被动的材料，而是具有复杂上下文敏感能力的单细胞生物的后代。我们使用了进化模拟的最小人工胚胎的背景下，探测不同程度的细胞能力的演化动力学的影响。虚拟胚胎由细胞基因组提供的位置信息值的单轴组成，由进化周期操作，其中胚胎的适应性与轴向梯度的单调性成正比。演化动力学在两种模式下进行评估：硬连线“马赛克”发展（基因型直接编码表型），和一个更现实的模式，细胞相互作用之前，评估的健身功能（“调节”发展）。即使是最小的能力，以改善他们的位置在胚胎中的结果在进化搜索的更好的性能。至关重要的是，我们观察到，由于细胞的能力掩盖了基因组的原始适应性，因此表型适应性的提高主要是由于细胞解决发育问题的能力的提高，而不是结构基因组。这表明存在一个强大的棘轮机制：进化逐渐锁定在其媒介基质的智力改进上，减少了结构基因组的压力。进化越来越多地将更多的精力投入到开发软件而不是完善硬件的反馈回路解释了像涡虫这样的物种的基因组与解剖学之间令人困惑的分歧，确定了随着时间的推移扩展智能的可能驱动力，并提出了在计算机和生物工程中设计新系统的策略。
英文摘要：
Biological genotypes do not code directly for phenotypes; developmental physiology is the control layer that separates genomes from capacities ascertained by selection. A key aspect is competency, as cells are not a passive material but descendants of unicellular organisms with complex context-sensitive capabilities. We used an evolutionary simulation in the context of minimal artificial embryogeny to probe the effects of different degrees of cellular competency on evolutionary dynamics. Virtual embryos consisted of a single axis of positional information values provided by cells' genomes, operated upon by an evolutionary cycle in which embryos' fitness was proportional to monotonicity of the axial gradient. Evolutionary dynamics were evaluated in two modes: hardwired "mosaic" development (genotype directly encodes phenotype), and a more realistic mode in which cells interact prior to evaluation by the fitness function ("regulative" development). Even minimal competency with respect to improving their position in the embryo results in better performance of the evolutionary search. Crucially, we observed that as competency of cells masks the raw fitness of the genomes, the phenotypic fitness gains are then mostly due to improvements of cells' developmental problem-solving capacities, not the structural genome. This suggests the existence of a powerful ratchet mechanism: evolution progressively becomes locked in to improvements in the intelligence of its agential substrate, with reduced pressure on the structural genome. A feedback loop in which evolution increasingly puts more effort into the developmental software than perfecting the hardware explains the very puzzling divergence of genome from anatomy in species like planaria, identifies a possible drive for scaling intelligence over time, and suggests strategies for engineering novel systems in silico and in bioengineering.
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