Gene Regulatory Network with Developmental Memory Capacity

This repository includes scripts that implement experiments from "The Evolution of Phenotypic Correlations and Developmental Memory" by Watson et al. (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/evo.12337). One can replicate experiments 1 and 2 depicted in figures 1 and 2 of the original paper.

Reproduction

Each script replicates a specific aspect of experiments 1 and 2 while helper functions generate the respective plots. Namely:

• single_env.py: serves as a placeholder for the gene regulatory network (GRN) and implements experiment 1 with a single phenotypic target.

  

  Figure 1: Single Environment Selection Pressure

• varying_env.py: implements experiment 2 with a varying phenotypic target.

  

  Figure 2: Two-target Environment Selection Pressure

• hebb_net_exp2.py: serves as the implementation of evolution via the Hebb rule: $\Delta w = x_{in}\cdot y $

• generate_plots.py: includes helper functions that generate the plots shown in figure 1 & 2 of the original paper.

• varying_env_maskB.py: serves as an extension of the experiments presented in the original paper and explores the capacity of GRNs when one gradually prevents genes from interacting.

  

  Figure 3: Masking the GRN

GPL-3.0-only