Universität zu Köln

Klug, Alexander ORCID: 0000-0002-5239-0405 and Krug, Joachim (2022). Conflicting effects of recombination on the evolvability and robustness in neutrally evolving populations. PLoS Comput. Biol., 18 (11). SAN FRANCISCO: PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE. ISSN 1553-7358

Full text not available from this repository.

Abstract

Understanding the benefits and costs of recombination under different scenarios of evolutionary adaptation remains an open problem for theoretical and experimental research. In this study, we focus on finite populations evolving on neutral networks comprising viable and unfit genotypes. We provide a comprehensive overview of the effects of recombination by jointly considering different measures of evolvability and mutational robustness over a broad parameter range, such that many evolutionary regimes are covered. We find that several of these measures vary non-monotonically with the rates of mutation and recombination. Moreover, the presence of unfit genotypes that introduce inhomogeneities in the network of viable states qualitatively alters the effects of recombination. We conclude that conflicting trends induced by recombination can be explained by an emerging trade-off between evolvability on the one hand, and mutational robustness on the other. Finally, we discuss how different implementations of the recombination scheme in theoretical models can affect the observed dependence on recombination rate through a coupling between recombination and genetic drift. Author summary Many genetic mechanisms have been invoked to explain the advantage of sex, but a coherent picture is still to emerge. Here we present a systematic theoretical and computational investigation of the effects of recombination in populations evolving on neutral fitness landscapes with unfit genotypes. We focus on populations that are large enough to be polymorphic, but nevertheless strongly affected by drift, which causes them to diffuse across the neutral network of viable genotypes. We identify a novel trade-off between evolvability, robustness and fitness that can lead to a dramatic reduction of the genetic diversity at large recombination rates. This disproves the common notion (often referred to as Weismann's hypothesis) that recombination generally increases diversity and evolvability, and instead highlights the interplay of recombination and mutational robustness.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code Klug, Alexander UNSPECIFIED orcid.org/0000-0002-5239-0405 UNSPECIFIED Krug, Joachim UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-669498
DOI:	10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010710
Journal or Publication Title:	PLoS Comput. Biol.
Volume:	18
Number:	11
Date:	2022
Publisher:	PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE
Place of Publication:	SAN FRANCISCO
ISSN:	1553-7358
Language:	English
Faculty:	Unspecified
Divisions:	Unspecified
Subjects:	no entry
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Keywords Language FITNESS LANDSCAPES; EVOLUTION; SEX; SELECTION; PERSPECTIVES; ADVANTAGE; EPISTASIS; GENOTYPES; EFFICACY; MUTATION Multiple languages Biochemical Research Methods; Mathematical & Computational Biology Multiple languages
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/66949