Degeneracy: a design principle for achieving robustness and evolvability.

Abstract excerpt

Robustness, the insensitivity of some of a biological system's functionalities to a set of distinct conditions, is intimately linked to fitness. Recent studies suggest that it may also play a vital role in enabling the evolution of species. Increasing robustness, so is proposed, can lead to the emergence of evolvability if evolution proceeds over a neutral network that extends far throughout the fitness...

Topics

• Algorithms
• Animals
• Computer Simulation
• Evolution, Molecular
• Gene Regulatory Networks
• Genetics, Population
• Genotype
• Humans
• Models, Biological
• Models, Genetic
• Models, Statistical
• Neural Networks, Computer
• Phenotype
• Selection, Genetic
• Software