Evolution under Fluctuating Environments Explains Observed Robustness in Metabolic Networks
This article addresses the hypothesis, specific to metabolic networks, that robustness emerges as a byproduct of selection for biomass production in different environments. Evolutionary simulations of metabolic networks under stable and fluctuating environments demonstrated that networks evolved under the fluctuating environments can better tolerate deletions. Robustness was characterized by an increased number of independent fluxes and multifunctional enzymes in the evolved networks. When simulated evolution of these networks under a stable environment, any robustness they had acquired was lost. "These findings provide evidence that evolution under fluctuating environments can account for the observed robustness in metabolic networks."It would be interesting to look at robustness in species that have evolved in particular enviorments, ie temperate vs tropic...
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