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Environmental Noise, Genetic Diversity and the Evolution of Evolvability and Robustness in Model Gene Networks

Figure 1

Hypothetical relationships between correlates of fitness (Wm) and number of mutations (m).

(A) Effects of lethal mutations measured as the natural log of the percent of mutants that are viable (Wm); curves were generated using the relationship ln(Wm) = −αmβ+ ln(100). (B) Effects of mutations on the phenotypic distance between the mutant and wild type; curves were generated using Wm = αmβ. For both A and B, β measures the strength and direction of epistasis. β>1 indicates negative directional (or synergistic) epistasis in which each subsequent mutation has a greater effect than the last, β<1 indicates positive directional (or antagonistic) epistasis in which effects of mutations become weaker as they accumulate, and β = 1 indicates effects of mutations are the same as they accumulate. Each dashed lines corresponds to larger α and stronger effects of mutations relative to the paired solid line.

Figure 1

doi: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0052204.g001