- Bath Artificial Intelligence

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The role of compensatory mutation in the evolution of gene regulatory networks - Nicholas Priest

Tuesday 22nd Mar, 5:15pm, 1W 2.7

The fate of a deleterious mutation depends, in part, on its mutational context. A mutation that would otherwise be deleterious can compensate when it restores the function of a previously non-functional genetic pathway. Compensatory mutations have been largely ignored because they are thought to be rare. As a consequence, we do not understand their basic properties. Are they generally of large or small effect? Where in the gene pathway are compensatory mutations likely to occur? What is the rate of compensatory mutation? Here, we address these questions using a common paradigm in evolutionary systems biology, the gene regulatory network. Similar to previous approaches, we examined the consequences of mutation on the stability of thousands of randomly sampled gene regulatory networks; but, we did not disallow the possibility that some mutations Ð deleterious on the own Ð may have compensatory effects. The talk will discuss our findings.