The role of robustness in phenotypic adaptation and innovation.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Wagner A
PROVIDER: S-EPMC3282381 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Apr
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
The role of robustness in phenotypic adaptation and innovation.
Proceedings. Biological sciences 20120104 1732
Phenotypes that vary in response to DNA mutations are essential for evolutionary adaptation and innovation. Therefore, it seems that robustness, a lack of phenotypic variability, must hinder adaptation. The main purpose of this review is to show why this is not necessarily correct. There are two reasons. The first is that robustness causes the existence of genotype networks--large connected sets of genotypes with the same phenotype. I discuss why genotype networks facilitate phenotypic variabili ...[more]
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