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Evolutionary capacitance as a general feature of complex gene networks.

Aviv Bergman1, Mark L Siegal

  • 1Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-5020, USA.

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|August 2, 2003
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Summary

Most genes can act as evolutionary capacitors, buffering genetic variation and accelerating adaptation. This buffering effect, unlike that of Hsp90, does not require environmental changes.

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Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary biology
  • Genetics
  • Molecular biology

Background:

  • An evolutionary capacitor buffers genotypic variation, hiding it until the capacitor fails.
  • Heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90) is a known evolutionary capacitor, suppressing phenotypic variation and releasing it when compromised.
  • Hsp90's function is affected by environmental stress and it has pleiotropic effects on development.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate if evolutionary capacitance is limited to Hsp90 or if other genes can also act as capacitors.
  • To explore the mechanism and scope of evolutionary capacitance beyond Hsp90.
  • To determine if loss-of-function mutations in genes accelerate adaptation.

Main Methods:

  • Numerical simulations of complex gene networks.
  • Analysis of genome-scale expression data from yeast single-gene deletion strains.

Main Results:

  • Most, if not all, genes can reveal phenotypic variation when functionally compromised.
  • The availability of loss-of-function mutations accelerates adaptation to new phenotypes.
  • This adaptive acceleration does not necessitate environment-dependent mutations.

Conclusions:

  • A broad class of evolutionary capacitors likely exists beyond Hsp90.
  • These capacitors complement Hsp90's systemic, environment-induced effects.
  • Understanding these capacitors can reveal new insights into adaptation mechanisms.