Publication Date:
2012-04-28
Description:
Biological systems that perform multiple tasks face a fundamental trade-off: A given phenotype cannot be optimal at all tasks. Here we ask how trade-offs affect the range of phenotypes found in nature. Using the Pareto front concept from economics and engineering, we find that best-trade-off phenotypes are weighted averages of archetypes--phenotypes specialized for single tasks. For two tasks, phenotypes fall on the line connecting the two archetypes, which could explain linear trait correlations, allometric relationships, as well as bacterial gene-expression patterns. For three tasks, phenotypes fall within a triangle in phenotype space, whose vertices are the archetypes, as evident in morphological studies, including on Darwin's finches. Tasks can be inferred from measured phenotypes based on the behavior of organisms nearest the archetypes.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Shoval, O -- Sheftel, H -- Shinar, G -- Hart, Y -- Ramote, O -- Mayo, A -- Dekel, E -- Kavanagh, K -- Alon, U -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2012 Jun 1;336(6085):1157-60. doi: 10.1126/science.1217405. Epub 2012 Apr 26.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Molecular Cell Biology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22539553" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Animals
;
Beak/anatomy & histology
;
*Biological Evolution
;
Body Size
;
Escherichia coli/genetics/growth & development/metabolism
;
Finches/anatomy & histology
;
Gene Expression
;
*Genetic Fitness
;
Models, Biological
;
Models, Statistical
;
*Phenotype
;
Selection, Genetic
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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