A percolation model of natural selection

Biosystems. 2020 Jun:193-194:104120. doi: 10.1016/j.biosystems.2020.104120. Epub 2020 Feb 22.

Abstract

A new approach has been proposed and developed: the selection of optimal variants in the evolutionary mutation flow is considered as an analogue of a percolation filter. Interaction of mutations in a series of generations and random processes of drift determine the collective behavior of nodes (individuals - carriers and converters of mutations) and bonds (mutations) in the space of percolation lattice. It is shown that the choice of the development trajectory at the population level depends on the spectrum of supporting and prohibiting mutations under the influence of conjugate deterministic and random factors. From the point of view of the fluctuation-bifurcation process, new concepts of the lower and upper thresholds of the percolation selection grid are defined in the hierarchical structure of speciation. The upper threshold determines the state of self-organized criticality, which, when overcome, leads to irreversible self-organization processes in the population caused by the accumulation of mutations.

Keywords: Bifurcations; Fluctuations; Natural selection; Percolations; Prohibiting and permitting mutations; Self-organization.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Biological Evolution*
  • Genetic Drift*
  • Humans
  • Models, Genetic*
  • Mutation / genetics
  • Selection, Genetic / genetics*