Evolution of a population of random Boolean networks

Abstract

We investigate the evolution of populations of random Boolean networks under selection for robustness of the dynamics with respect to the perturbation of the state of a node. The fitness landscape contains a huge plateau of maximum fitness that spans the entire network space. When selection is so strong that it dominates over drift, the evolutionary process is accompanied by a slow increase in the mean connectivity and a slow decrease in the mean fitness. Populations evolved with higher mutation rates show a higher robustness under mutations. This means that even though all the evolved populations exist close to the plateau of maximum fitness, they end up in different regions of network space.