Effects of selective neutrality on the evolution of molecular species

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Abstract
We introduce a model of evolution on a fitness landscape possessing a tunable degree of neutrality. The model allows us to study the general properties of molecular species undergoing neutral evolution. We find that a number of phenomena seen in RNA sequence–structure maps are present also in our general model. Examples are the occurrence of ‘common’ structures that occupy a fraction of the genotype space which tends to unity as the length of the genotype increases, and the formation of percolating neutral networks that cover the genotype space in such a way that a member of such a network can be found within a small radius of any point in the space. We also describe a number of new phenomena that appear to be general properties of systems possessing selective neutrality. In particular, we show that the maximum fitness attained during the adaptive walk of a population evolving on such a fitness landscape increases with increasing degree of neutrality, and is directly related to the fitness of the most fit percolating network.