Epistasis refers to the non-additive interactions between genes in determining phenotypes. Considerable efforts have shown that, even for a given organism, epistasis may vary both in intensity and sign. Recent comparative studies supported that the overall sign of epistasis switches from positive to negative as the complexity of an organism increases, and it has been hypothesized that this change shall be a consequence of the underlying gene network properties. Why should this be the case? What characteristics of genetic networks determine the sign of epistasis? Here we show, by evolving genetic networks that differ in their complexity and robustness against perturbations but that perform the same tasks, that robustness increased with complexity and that epistasis was positive for small non-robust networks but negative for large robust ones. Our results indicate that robustness and negative epistasis emerge as a consequence of the existence of redundant elements in regulatory structures of genetic networks and that the correlation between complexity and epistasis is a byproduct of such redundancy, allowing for the decoupling of epistasis from the underlying network complexity.
Figure 2-Association average connectivity and complexity
Association between average degree connectivity and complexity.
Figure 3-Association of complexity with epistasis
Association between average epistasis and complexity in evolved genetic networks. File contains data for networks with feedback loops and for networks without feedback loops. In addition, two sets of smaller feedback loop-free networks (12 and 6 nodes) are included.
Figure 4a-Association epistasis robustness
Association between epistasis and robustness for evolved networks with and without feedback loops.
Figure 4b-Association complexity robustness
Association between complexity and robustness for evolved genetic networks with or without feedback loops.
Figure 5a-Association degeneracy epistasis
Association between degeneracy and epistasis for evolved genetic networks with and without feedback loops. Two small sets of networks without feedback loops of small size (12 and 6 nodes) are included. Data for feedback-loop containing mutated networks are also included.
Figure 5b-Association redundancy epistasis
Association between redundancy and epistasis for evolved genetic networks with and without feedback loops. Two small sets of networks without feedback loops of small size (12 and 6 nodes) are included. Data for feedback-loop containing mutated networks are also included.
Figure 6-Association complexity degeneracy
Association between complexity and degeneracy for evolved genetic networks with and without feedback loops.