CMPG Laboratory of Genetics and Genomics, Departement Microbiële en Moleculaire Systemen (M2S), KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
VIB Laboratory for Systems Biology, VIB-KU Leuven Center for Microbiology, Leuven, Belgium.
PLoS Biol. 2019 Jan 30;17(1):e3000111. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3000111. eCollection 2019 Jan.
The regulatory processes in cells are typically organized into complex genetic networks. However, it is still unclear how this network structure modulates the evolution of cellular regulation. One would expect that mutations in central and highly connected modules of a network (so-called hubs) would often result in a breakdown and therefore be an evolutionary dead end. However, a new study by Koubkova-Yu and colleagues finds that in some circumstances, altering a hub can offer a quick evolutionary advantage. Specifically, changes in a hub can induce significant phenotypic changes that allow organisms to move away from a local fitness peak, whereas the fitness defects caused by the perturbed hub can be mitigated by mutations in its interaction partners. Together, the results demonstrate how network architecture shapes and facilitates evolutionary adaptation.
细胞中的调控过程通常被组织成复杂的遗传网络。然而，目前尚不清楚这种网络结构如何调节细胞调控的进化。人们可能会认为，网络（即所谓的枢纽）中心和高度连接模块中的突变通常会导致崩溃，因此成为进化的死胡同。然而，Koubkova-Yu 及其同事的一项新研究发现，在某些情况下，改变枢纽可以提供快速的进化优势。具体来说，枢纽的变化可以诱导显著的表型变化，使生物体能够远离局部适应度峰值，而枢纽扰动引起的适应度缺陷可以通过其相互作用伙伴的突变来减轻。总之，这些结果表明了网络结构如何塑造和促进进化适应。
