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A computational investigation of cis-gene regulation in evolution

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Abstract

In biological processes involving gene networks, genes regulate other genes that determine the phenotypic traits. Gene regulation plays an important role in evolutionary dynamics. In a genetic algorithm, a trans-gene regulatory mechanism was shown to speed up adaptation and evolution. Here, we examine the effect of cis-gene regulation on an adaptive system. The model is haploid. A chromosome is partitioned into regulatory loci and structural loci. The regulatory genes regulate the expression and functioning of structural genes via the cis-elements in a probabilistic manner. In the simulation, the change in the allele frequency, the mean population fitness and the efficiency of phenotypic selection are monitored. Cis-gene regulation increases adaption and accelerates the evolutionary process in comparison with the case involving absence of gene regulation. Some special features of the simulation results are as follows. A low ratio of regulatory loci and structural loci gives higher adaptation for fixed total number of loci. Plasticity is advantageous beyond a threshold value. Adaptation is better for large number of total loci when the ratio of regulatory loci to structural loci is one. However, it reaches a saturation beyond which the increase in the total loci is not advantageous. Efficiency of the phenotypic selection is higher for larger value of the initial plasticity.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Addis Ababa University, P.O.Box 1176, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

    Mohammed Mahmud & Mulugeta Bekele

  2. Department of Applied Physics, Adama Science and Technology University, P. O. Box 1888, Adama, Ethiopia

    Narayan Behera

  3. Division of Physical Science, SVYASA University, Eknath Bhavan, Kempegowda Nagar, Bengaluru, 560019, India

    Narayan Behera

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  1. Mohammed Mahmud
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  2. Mulugeta Bekele
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  3. Narayan Behera
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Contributions

The research problem was conceived by NB and MB. The programming was done, data were obtained, and the paper was written by MM. All authors have read and revised the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Narayan Behera.

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Mahmud, M., Bekele, M. & Behera, N. A computational investigation of cis-gene regulation in evolution. Theory Biosci. 142, 151–165 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12064-023-00391-3

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