Exploring the costs of phenotypic plasticity for evolvable digital organisms
Exploring the costs of phenotypic plasticity for evolvable digital organisms
Phenotypic plasticity is usually defined as a property of individual genotypes to produce different phenotypes when exposed to different environmental conditions. While the benefits of plasticity for adaptation are well established, the costs associated with plasticity remain somewhat obscure. Understanding both why and how these costs arise could help us explain and predict the behavior of living creatures as well as allow the design of more adaptable robotic systems. The hypothesis put forward in this study is that the potential benefits of plasticity might be undermined by the genetic costs related to plasticity itself. The results suggest that this hypothesis is true, while further research is needed to guarantee that the observed effects unequivocally derive from genetic costs and not from some other (unforeseen) mechanism related to plasticity.
[Karine Miras]
Exploring the costs of phenotypic plasticity for evolvable digital organisms