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Modularity, criticality, and evolvability of a developmental gene regulatory network

Berta Verd, Nicholas AM Monk, Johannes Jaeger
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/413211
Berta Verd
1EMBL/CRG Systems Biology Research Unit, Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Dr. Aiguader 88, 08003 Barcelona, Spain
2Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona, Spain
3Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution & Cognition Research (KLI), Klosterneuburg, Austria
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  • For correspondence: bertaverd@gmail.com yoginho@gmail.com
Nicholas AM Monk
4School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
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Johannes Jaeger
1EMBL/CRG Systems Biology Research Unit, Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Dr. Aiguader 88, 08003 Barcelona, Spain
2Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona, Spain
3Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution & Cognition Research (KLI), Klosterneuburg, Austria
5Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, Germany
6Center for Systems Biology Dresden (CSBD), Germany
7Complexity Science Hub (CSH), Vienna, Austria
8Centre de Recherches Interdisciplinaires (CRI), Paris, France
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  • For correspondence: bertaverd@gmail.com yoginho@gmail.com
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Abstract

The existence of discrete phenotypic traits suggests that the complex regulatory processes which produce them are functionally modular. These processes are usually represented by networks. Only modular networks can be partitioned into intelligible subcircuits able to evolve relatively independently. Traditionally, functional modularity is approximated by detection of modularity in network structure. However, the correlation between structure and function is loose. Many regulatory networks exhibit modular behaviour without structural modularity. Here we partition an experimentally tractable regulatory network—the gap gene system of dipteran insects—using an alternative approach. We show that this system, although not structurally modular, is composed of dynamical modules driving different aspects of whole-network behaviour. All these subcircuits share the same regulatory structure, but differ in components and sensitivity to regulatory interactions. Some subcircuits are in a state of criticality while others are not, which explains the observed differential evolvability of the various expression features in the system.

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The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
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Posted April 28, 2019.
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Modularity, criticality, and evolvability of a developmental gene regulatory network
Berta Verd, Nicholas AM Monk, Johannes Jaeger
bioRxiv 413211; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/413211
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Modularity, criticality, and evolvability of a developmental gene regulatory network
Berta Verd, Nicholas AM Monk, Johannes Jaeger
bioRxiv 413211; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/413211

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