Microevolution in an electronic microcosm

The American Naturalist
G Yedid, G Bell

Abstract

The evolution of microbial populations in simple environments such as chemostats is still not fully understood. The classical interpretation of adaptation involves a process of successive substitution whereby a new dominant genotype arises by mutation from the genotype previously dominant and spreads more or less rapidly through the population until it is nearly fixed. The population is, thus, nearly uniform most of the time. Some observations suggest that the process may be more complicated, but it remains formidably difficult to assemble the phylogeny of an evolving culture in sufficient detail to be sure. We report experiments with an electronic microcosm inhabited by self-replicating computer programs whose phylogeny can be rendered completely transparent. The physiology of these programs is different in many respects from that of organic creatures, but their population biology has many features in common, including a very extensive, if not unbounded, range of variation. Experimental populations evolved through point mutations (many of which were quasi-neutral when they were viable) and through rearrangements that led to a change in genome size and often had large effects on fitness. As a general rule, smaller genomes execu...Continue Reading

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Citations

Nov 26, 2002·BioEssays : News and Reviews in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology·Christoph Adami
Dec 20, 2002·Nature·Gabriel Yedid, Graham Bell
May 9, 2003·Nature·Richard E LenskiChristoph Adami
Mar 20, 2004·Nature Reviews. Microbiology·Andrés MoyaFernando González-Candelas
Aug 10, 2007·Heredity·G Bell
Sep 15, 2006·Journal of the Royal Society, Interface·Emmanuel de MargerieLalaonirina Rakotomanana
Apr 27, 2004·Artificial Life·Charles Ofria, Claus O Wilke
Oct 17, 2006·Journal of Evolutionary Biology·G A HoelzerJ W Pepper
May 1, 2007·Journal of Evolutionary Biology·A R Kraaijeveld
Mar 14, 2007·Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution·Santiago F ElenaRichard E Lenski
Mar 3, 2007·Current Biology : CB·Michael M DesaiAndrew W Murray
May 1, 2012·FEMS Microbiology Letters·Mian Huang, Katy C Kao
Jan 19, 2006·Nature Reviews. Genetics·Christoph Adami

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