The effects of gene recruitment on the evolvability and robustness of pattern-forming gene networks

Abstract

Gene recruitment or co-option is defined as the placement of a new gene under a foreign regulatory system. Such re-arrangement of pre-existing regulatory networks can lead to an increase in genomic complexity. This reorganization is recognized as a major driving force in evolution.We simulated the evolution of gene networks by means of the Genetic Algorithms (GA) technique. We used standard GA methods of point mutation and multi-point crossover, as well as our own operators for introducing or withdrawing new genes on the network. The starting point for our computer evolutionary experiments was a 4-gene dynamic model representing the real genetic network controlling segmentation in the fruit fly Drosophila. Model output was fit to experimentally observed gene expression patterns in the early fly embryo. We compared this to output for networks with more and less genes, and with variation in maternal regulatory input.We found that the mutation operator, together with the gene introduction procedure, was sufficient for recruiting new genes into pre-existing networks. Reinforcement of the evolutionary search by crossover operators facilitates this recruitment, but is not necessary. Gene recruitment causes outgrowth of an evolving network, resulting in redundancy, in the sense that the number of genes goes up, as well as the regulatory interactions on the original genes. The recruited genes can have uniform or patterned expressions, many of which recapitulate gene patterns seen in flies, including genes which are not explicitly put in our model. Recruitment of new genes can affect the evolvability of networks (in general, their ability to produce the variation to facilitate adaptive evolution).We see. © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009.