title: Spontaneous emergence of modularity in a model of evolving individuals.
abstract: We investigate the selective forces that promote the emergence of modularity in nature. We demonstrate the spontaneous emergence of modularity in a population of individuals that evolve in a changing environment. We show that the level of modularity correlates with the rapidity and severity of environmental change. The modularity arises as a synergistic response to the noise in the environment in the presence of horizontal gene transfer. We suggest that the hierarchical structure observed in the natural world may be a broken-symmetry state, which generically results from evolution in a changing environment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics & Astronomy and Department of Bioengineering, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005-1892, USA.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Michael W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Deem
mesh_terms: D000220:Adaptation, Biological; D005075:Biological Evolution; D004777:Environment; D022761:Gene Transfer, Horizontal; D008957:Models, Genetic