Robustness and Evolvability in Living Systems

Andreas Wagner

Published by Princeton University Press 2005

Robustness and Evolvability in Living Systems

Andreas Wagner

Volume 15 in the series Princeton Studies in Complexity

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400849383

Overview
Contents

About this book

All living things are remarkably complex, yet their DNA is unstable, undergoing countless random mutations over generations. Despite this instability, most animals do not grow two heads or die, plants continue to thrive, and bacteria continue to divide. Robustness and Evolvability in Living Systems tackles this perplexing paradox. The book explores why genetic changes do not cause organisms to fail catastrophically and how evolution shapes organisms' robustness. Andreas Wagner looks at this problem from the ground up, starting with the alphabet of DNA, the genetic code, RNA, and protein molecules, moving on to genetic networks and embryonic development, and working his way up to whole organisms. He then develops an evolutionary explanation for robustness.

Wagner shows how evolution by natural selection preferentially finds and favors robust solutions to the problems organisms face in surviving and reproducing. Such robustness, he argues, also enhances the potential for future evolutionary innovation. Wagner also argues that robustness has less to do with organisms having plenty of spare parts (the redundancy theory that has been popular) and more to do with the reality that mutations can change organisms in ways that do not substantively affect their fitness.

Unparalleled in its field, this book offers the most detailed analysis available of all facets of robustness within organisms. It will appeal not only to biologists but also to engineers interested in the design of robust systems and to social scientists concerned with robustness in human communities and populations.

Author / Editor information

Andreas Wagner is professor of biochemistry at the University of Zurich. He studies the evolution of biological systems on all levels of organismal organization, from genes and genomes to gene networks and embryonic development

Reviews

"This is a major contribution, addressing what are perhaps the central questions in the subject of complex adaptive systems: What makes systems robust and how does selection at different levels of organization act to shape robustness? It is a well-written, well-organized, provocative piece of scholarly work that will be widely read and debated."—Simon Levin, Princeton University

"This is a timely book that should appeal to biologists, engineers, and applied mathematicians."—David C. Krakauer, Santa Fe Institute

This book is invaluable for everybody interested in robustness. . . . I predict that for many years to come, Wagner's book will be the bibliographic reference work of choice for research on robustness.---Claus O. Wilke, BioScience

Unparalleled in its field, this book offers the most detailed analysis available of all facets of robustness within organisms. It will appeal not only to biologists but also to engineers interested in the design of robust systems and to social scientists concerned with robustness in human communities and populations.

Wagner contributes significantly to the emerging view that natural selection is just one, and maybe not even the most fundamental, source of biological order. His two-page epilogue throws out seven open questions for systems biologists and neo-Darwinians to consider; hopefully they will do so.---Greg Gibson, Science

Wagner's treatise is more than good biology; it is also very interesting biology. The picture is painted by talented hands. . . . If I have a favorite aspect of the book, it is the meticulous yet insightful analysis of neutral spaces and their relevance for the main themes of the book.---Eörs Szathmáry, Nature

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Figures Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xiii
1. Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
PART I: ROBUSTNESS BELOW THE GENE LEVEL
2. The Genetic Alphabet Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	15
3. The Genetic Code Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	25
4. RNA Structure Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	39
5. Proteins and Point Mutations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	62
6. Proteins and Recombination Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	78
PART II: ROBUSTNESS ABOVE THE GENE LEVEL
7. Regulatory DNA Regions and Their Reorganization in Evolution Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	93
8. Metabolic Pathways Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	104
9. Metabolic Networks Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	120
10. Drosophila Segmentation and Other Gene Regulatory Networks Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	143
11. Phenotypic Traits, Cryptic Variation, and Human Diseases Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	161
12. The Many Ways of Building the Same Body Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	175
PART III: COMMON PRINCIPLES
13. Neutral Spaces Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	195
14. Evolvability and Neutral Mutations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	217
15. Redundancy of Parts or Distributed Robustness? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	228
16. Robustness as an Evolved Adaptation to Mutations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	247
17. Robustness as an Evolved Adaptation to Environmental Change and Noise Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	270
18. Robustness and Fragility: Advantages to Variation and Trade-offs Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	281
PART IV: ROBUSTNESS BEYOND THE ORGANISM
19. Robustness in Natural Systems and Self-Organization Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	297
20. Robustness in Man-made Systems Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	310
Epilogue: Seven Open Questions for Systems Biology Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	321
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	323
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	359

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