Evolution of default genetic control mechanisms

We present a model of the evolution of control systems in a genome under environmental constraints. The model conceptually follows the Jacob and Monod model of gene control. Genes contain control elements which respond to the internal state of the cell as well as the environment to control expressio...

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Main Authors: Bains, William, Borriello, Enrico, Schulze-Makuch, Dirk
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
Format: Article
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2021
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/132700
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author Bains, William
Borriello, Enrico
Schulze-Makuch, Dirk
author2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
author_facet Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
Bains, William
Borriello, Enrico
Schulze-Makuch, Dirk
author_sort Bains, William
collection MIT
description We present a model of the evolution of control systems in a genome under environmental constraints. The model conceptually follows the Jacob and Monod model of gene control. Genes contain control elements which respond to the internal state of the cell as well as the environment to control expression of a coding region. Control and coding regions evolve to maximize a fitness function between expressed coding sequences and the environment. The model was run 118 times to an average of 1.4∙10⁶ ‘generations’ each with a range of starting parameters probed the conditions under which genomes evolved a ‘default style’ of control. Unexpectedly, the control logic that evolved was not significantly correlated to the complexity of the environment. Genetic logic was strongly correlated with genome complexity and with the fraction of genes active in the cell at any one time. More complex genomes correlated with the evolution of genetic controls in which genes were active (‘default on’), and a low fraction of genes being expressed correlated with a genetic logic in which genes were biased to being inactive unless positively activated (‘default off’ logic). We discuss how this might relate to the evolution of the complex eukaryotic genome, which operates in a ‘default off’ mode.
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spelling mit-1721.1/1327002022-09-28T18:03:30Z Evolution of default genetic control mechanisms Bains, William Borriello, Enrico Schulze-Makuch, Dirk Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences We present a model of the evolution of control systems in a genome under environmental constraints. The model conceptually follows the Jacob and Monod model of gene control. Genes contain control elements which respond to the internal state of the cell as well as the environment to control expression of a coding region. Control and coding regions evolve to maximize a fitness function between expressed coding sequences and the environment. The model was run 118 times to an average of 1.4∙10⁶ ‘generations’ each with a range of starting parameters probed the conditions under which genomes evolved a ‘default style’ of control. Unexpectedly, the control logic that evolved was not significantly correlated to the complexity of the environment. Genetic logic was strongly correlated with genome complexity and with the fraction of genes active in the cell at any one time. More complex genomes correlated with the evolution of genetic controls in which genes were active (‘default on’), and a low fraction of genes being expressed correlated with a genetic logic in which genes were biased to being inactive unless positively activated (‘default off’ logic). We discuss how this might relate to the evolution of the complex eukaryotic genome, which operates in a ‘default off’ mode. 2021-10-04T18:09:55Z 2021-10-04T18:09:55Z 2021-05 2021-01 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1932-6203 https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/132700 Bains, William et al. "Evolution of default genetic control mechanisms." PLoS ONE 16, 5 (May 2021): e0251568. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0251568 PLoS ONE Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ application/pdf Public Library of Science (PLoS) PLoS
spellingShingle Bains, William
Borriello, Enrico
Schulze-Makuch, Dirk
Evolution of default genetic control mechanisms
title Evolution of default genetic control mechanisms
title_full Evolution of default genetic control mechanisms
title_fullStr Evolution of default genetic control mechanisms
title_full_unstemmed Evolution of default genetic control mechanisms
title_short Evolution of default genetic control mechanisms
title_sort evolution of default genetic control mechanisms
url https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/132700
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