Abstract
The limits of evolution have long fascinated biologists. However, the causes of evolutionary constraint have remained elusive due to a poor mechanistic understanding of studied phenotypes. Recently, a range of innovative approaches have leveraged mechanistic information on regulatory networks and cellular biology. These methods combine systems biology models with population and single-cell quantification and with new genetic tools, and they have been applied to a range of complex cellular functions and engineered networks. In this article, we review these developments, which are revealing the mechanistic causes of epistasis at different levels of biological organization-in molecular recognition, within a single regulatory network, and between different networks-providing first indications of predictable features of evolutionary constraint.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 181-197 |
Journal | Annual Review of Biophysics |
Volume | 49 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2020 |
Keywords
- epistasis
- evolutionary constraint
- gene regulation
- pleiotropy
- prediction
- regulation networks