Authors:
David M. Holloway
1
;
Alexander B. Kazansky
2
and
Alexander V. Spirov
3
Affiliations:
1
British Columbia Institute of Technology, Canada
;
2
The Sechenov Institute of Evolutionary Physiology & Biochemistry, Russian Federation
;
3
The Sechenov Institute of Evolutionary Physiology & Biochemistry and SUNY Stony Brook, Russian Federation
Keyword(s):
Evolution in Silico, Evolutionary Design, Genomes, Genomic Parasites, Artificial Transposons, Co-evolution, Gene Networks, Gene Co-option, Complexification, Genetic Algorithms.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Artificial Intelligence
;
Artificial Life
;
Biocomputing and Complex Adaptive Systems
;
Co-Evolution and Collective Behavior
;
Computational Intelligence
;
Evolutionary Computing
;
Genetic Algorithms
;
Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics
;
Intelligent Control Systems and Optimization
;
Soft Computing
Abstract:
The co-evolution of species with their genomic parasites (transposons) is thought to be one of the primary ways of rewiring gene regulatory networks (GRNs). In this communication, we computationally explore some of the essential co-evolution aspects of hosts (GRNs) with their transposons. We implemented an evolutionary search of an appropriate GRN model design on the example of the Drosophila gap-gene network. Simple artificial transposons capable of spreading and transposition were implemented. With the model, we explored the hypothesis that targeting destruction of some of the regulatory connections in the GRN via the action of transposons can produce negative selection pressure. Functionally external genes can be recruited (co-opted) into the GRN under this selection pressure following transposon rewiring of the GRN. Over evolutionary time, transposition events are able to disrupt these new regulatory connections, leading to repeated cycles of recruitment, rewiring and optimizatio
n. This process can produce increasingly large GRNs with the same basic functions.
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