Evolution of robustness or plasticity in dynamic gene networks

The ability of natural selection to evolve robustness has been widely debated over the last decade. There has been particular interest in the way that robustness to different kinds of perturbations evolves. I will discuss the evolution of robustness in static genetic networks in response to environmental, genetic, and somatic perturbations. The general conclusion is that robustness to genetic mutation will only evolve when the mutation rate is high or the number of genes that can be buffered by a single canalizing mutation is high. However, robustness to somatic mutations may evolve under broader conditions and this could lead to a signature of genetic robustness. I will discuss how modeling the evolution dynamic gene networks can contribute to our understanding of robustness evolution.

Here is a link to the PDF of my presentation.