title: Quasispecies theory for evolution of modularity.
abstract: Biological systems are modular, and this modularity evolves over time and in different environments. A number of observations have been made of increased modularity in biological systems under increased environmental pressure. We here develop a quasispecies theory for the dynamics of modularity in populations of these systems. We show how the steady-state fitness in a randomly changing environment can be computed. We derive a fluctuation dissipation relation for the rate of change of modularity and use it to derive a relationship between rate of environmental changes and rate of growth of modularity. We also find a principle of least action for the evolved modularity at steady state. Finally, we compare our predictions to simulations of protein evolution and find them to be consistent.
authors: Departments of Physics & Astronomy and Bioengineering, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005-1892, USA; Department of Physical and Biological Science, Western New England University, Springfield, Massachusetts 01119, USA; and Department of Physics, The Catholic University of Korea, Bucheon 420-743, Korea.
authors: Jeong-Man
authors: JM
authors: Park
authors: Departments of Physics & Astronomy and Bioengineering, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005-1892, USA; Department of Physical and Biological Science, Western New England University, Springfield, Massachusetts 01119, USA; and Department of Physics, The Catholic University of Korea, Bucheon 420-743, Korea.
authors: Liang Ren
authors: LR
authors: Niestemski
authors: Departments of Physics & Astronomy and Bioengineering, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005-1892, USA; Department of Physical and Biological Science, Western New England University, Springfield, Massachusetts 01119, USA; and Department of Physics, The Catholic University of Korea, Bucheon 420-743, Korea.
authors: Michael W
authors: MW
authors: Deem
mesh_terms: D005075:Biological Evolution; D004777:Environment; D008954:Models, Biological; D011506:Proteins / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D011506:Proteins