Spontaneous Emergence of Modularity in a Model of Evolving Individuals
arXiv:0710.3436 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.99.228107
Abstract
We investigate the selective forces that promote the emergence of modularity in nature. We demonstrate the spontaneous emergence of modularity in a population of individuals that evolve in a changing environment. We show that the level of modularity correlates with the rapidity and severity of environmental change. The modularity arises as a synergistic response to the noise in the environment in the presence of horizontal gene transfer. We suggest that the hierarchical structure observed in the natural world may be a broken symmetry state, which generically results from evolution in a changing environment.
4 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. Lett