paper:doi-10-1098-rspb-2012-2863The evolutionary origins of modularity
Original abstract (expand)
A central biological question is how natural organisms are so evolvable (capable of quickly adapting to new environments). A key driver of evolvability is the widespread modularity of biological networks--their organization as functional, sparsely connected subunits--but there is no consensus regarding why modularity itself evolved. Although most hypotheses assume indirect selection for evolvability, here we demonstrate that the ubiquitous, direct selection pressure to reduce the cost of connections between network nodes causes the emergence of modular networks. Computational evolution experiments with selection pressures to maximize network performance and minimize connection costs yield networks that are significantly more modular and more evolvable than control experiments that only select for performance. These results will catalyse research in numerous disciplines, such as neuroscience and genetics, and enhance our ability to harness evolution for engineering purposes.
Related work— refs + corpus + external arXiv
Cited / in-corpus / arXiv badges show which signals surfaced each row. Multi-source rows weighted higher.
- The Origin of Life in the Light of EvolutionTom A. Williams, Laura Eme, Johann Peter Gogarten, Patricia Sanchez-Baracaldo, Anja Spang, Frank O. Aylward, Michael Travisano, Paula V. Welander, Julie A. Huber, Vaughn S. Cooper, Paul E. Turner, Timothy W. Lyons, Andrew D. Ellington, Shelley D. Copley, Eugene V. Koonin, Michael Lynch Bet\"ul Ka\c{c}ar2026≈ 76%
- General Mechanism of Evolution Shared by Proteins and WordsHsing-Yi Lai, Sun-Ting Tsai, Chen Siang Ng, Kevin Sheng-Kai Ma, Shan-Jyun Wu, Meng-Xue Tsai, Yi-Ching Su, Daw-Wei Wang, and Tzay-Ming Hong Li-Min Wang2026≈ 75%
- A variational synthesis of evolutionary and developmental dynamicsDaniel Ari Friedman, Axel Constant, V. Bleu Knight, Thomas Parr, John O. Campbell Karl Friston2023≈ 75%
- ≈ 73%
- Evolution-Development Congruence in Pattern Formation Dynamics: Bifurcations in Gene Expressions and Regulation of Networks StructuresTakahiro Kohsokabe and Kunihiko Kaneko2015≈ 72%
- The scaling of goals via homeostasis: an evolutionary simulation, experiment and analysisJohanna Bischof, Jennifer V. LaPalme, and Michael Levin Leo Pio-Lopez2022≈ 72%
- ≈ 72%
- Adaptive walks in a gene network model of morphogenesis: insights into the Cambrian explosionPau Fernandez, Stuart A. Kauffman Ricard V. Sole2007≈ 71%
- The Neoplasia as embryological phenomenon and its implication in the animal evolution and the origin of cancer. I. A presentation of the neoplastic process and its connection with cell fusion and germline formationKay Saalfeld Jaime Cofre2026≈ 71%
- On the Implicit and on the Artificial - Morphogenesis and Emergent Aesthetics in Autonomous Collective SystemsVitorino Ramos2007≈ 71%
- Microelectronic Morphogenesis: Progress towards Artificial OrganismsDaniil Karnaushenko, Minshen Zhu and Oliver G. Schmidt John S. McCaskill2024≈ 71%
- The modularity of action and perception revisited using control theory and active inferenceManuel Baltieri and Christopher L. Buckley2022≈ 71%
- ≈ 71%
- ≈ 71%
- Morphological Computing as Logic Underlying Cognition in Human, Animal, and Intelligent MachineGordana Dodig-Crnkovic2023≈ 71%
- Darwin's agential materials: evolutionary implications of multiscale competency in developmental biologyin corpus2023≈ 70%
- ≈ 69%
- Design for an Individual: Connectionist Approaches to the Evolutionary Transitions in Individualityin corpus2022≈ 69%
- ≈ 68%
- Self-Improvising Memory: A Perspective on Memories as Agential, Dynamically Reinterpreting Cognitive Gluein corpus2024≈ 68%
- ≈ 68%
- The biogenic approach to cognitionin corpus2005≈ 68%
- Collective intelligence: A unifying concept for integrating biology across scales and substratesin corpus2024≈ 67%
- ≈ 67%
- Developmental Bioelectricity: the cognitive glue enabling evolutionary scaling from physiology to mindin corpus2023≈ 66%
- Endless forms most beautiful 2.0: teleonomy and the bioengineering of chimaeric and synthetic organismsin corpus2023≈ 66%
- The Machine Consciousness Hypothesisin corpus≈ 66%
- ≈ 66%
- Towards a theory of conceptual design for softwarein corpus2015≈ 66%
- ≈ 66%
Similar preprints — Semantic Scholar
Cited by (2)
- Design for an Individual: Connectionist Approaches to the Evolutionary Transitions in Individuality
Evolutionary transitions in individuality (ETIs) require interaction structures among lower-level units that compute non-linearly separable functions — the same class of functions that single-layer Pe
- Living Things Are Not (20th Century) Machines: Updating Mechanism Metaphors in Light of the Modern Science of Machine Behavior
Bongard and Levin argue that the longstanding debate over whether living things are machines has been conducted against a 20th-century, static definition of 'machine' that modern engineering has alrea