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Modelling ‘evo‐devo’ with RNA
Author(s) -
Fontana Walter
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
bioessays
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.175
H-Index - 184
eISSN - 1521-1878
pISSN - 0265-9247
DOI - 10.1002/bies.10190
Subject(s) - evolutionary developmental biology , evolutionary biology , congruence (geometry) , biology , rna , computational biology , simple (philosophy) , nucleic acid secondary structure , phenotype , genetics , gene , mathematics , geometry , philosophy , epistemology
Abstract The folding of RNA sequences into secondary structures is a simple yet biophysically grounded model of a genotype–phenotype map. Its computational and mathematical analysis has uncovered a surprisingly rich statistical structure characterized by shape space covering, neutral networks and plastogenetic congruence. I review these concepts and discuss their evolutionary implications. BioEssays 24:1164–1177, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Periodicals, Inc.