Evolution of evolvability and phenotypic plasticity in virtual cells.

Area of Science:

• Evolutionary biology
• Computational biology
• Systems biology

Background:

• Changing environmental conditions challenge species survival.
• Organisms adapt via phenotypic plasticity (physiological regulation) or evolution.
• Homeostasis maintains internal stability, while drastic change requires mutation-driven adaptation.

Purpose of the Study:

• Investigate conditions favoring phenotypic plasticity versus evolvability.
• Determine if evolution of one strategy hinders or facilitates the other.
• Model the evolution of adaptive strategies in Virtual Cells.

Main Methods:

• Computational evolutionary modeling using Virtual Cells.
• Simulated a preparatory evolutionary phase for homeostasis regulation.
• Varied environmental change nature and frequencies during subsequent adaptation phase.

Main Results:

• Pre-evolved Virtual Cell strains (WT-VCS) showed high evolvability and rapid adaptation to novel changes.
• Low-frequency environmental changes promoted genome restructuring for faster adaptation.
• High-frequency changes favored phenotypic plasticity, a slower evolutionary process.
• Intermediate frequencies led to the co-occurrence of both strategies.

Conclusions:

• Evolving homeostasis mechanisms predisposes lineages to be evolvable.
• Evolvability can be a viable alternative to phenotypic plasticity in most environments.
• The frequency of environmental change dictates the dominant adaptive strategy.