Regensburg 2016 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik

DY 30: Poster - Complex nonlinear systems

DY 30.6: Poster

Dienstag, 8. März 2016, 18:15–21:00, Poster C

Evolution of random Boolean networks by a hill-climbing process under selection for robust functioning — •Lara Becker, Isabella-Hilda Bodea, and Barbara Drossel — TU Darmstadt, Germany

Gene regulatory networks (GRNs) play a vital role in the control of cellular processes, including differentiation, the cell cycle and metabolism. Like other biological systems, they are subject to noise, which can manifest itself e.g. as thermodynamic fluctuations. In order to maintain their functioning under stochastic influences, GRNs need to be robust, i.e. they must tolerate perturbations that would otherwise impair their funcionality.

We use Boolean threshold networks as a simple model for GRNs and subject individual networks to an evolutionary process, accepting only those mutations that do not reduce the fitness of the network. The fitness is evaluated based on the ability to display a predetermined dynamical behavior in the presence of noise. Stochastic influences are implemented through random changes in the state of nodes. A mutation modifies either the connections or update functions. We examine the change in structural as well as dynamical properties of the networks during the evolutionary process in dependence of the model parameters, and we relate them to the developing functional robustness.