Genetic mappings in artificial genomes

Abstract

This paper concerns processing of genomes of arti cial (computer-simulated) organisms. Of special interest is the process of translation of genotypes into phenotypes, and utilizing the mapping information obtained during such translation. If there exists more than one genetic encoding in a single arti cial life model, then the translation may also occur between di erent encodings. The obtained mapping information allows to present genes-phenes relationships visually and interactively to a person, in order to increase understanding of the genotype-to-phenotype translation process and genetic encoding properties. As the mapping associates parts of the source sequence with the translated destination, it may be also used to trace genes, phenes, and their relationships during simulated evolution.A mappings composition procedure is formally described, and a simple method of visual mapping presentation is established. Finally, advanced visualizations of genephene relationships are demonstrated as practical examples of introduced techniques. These visualizations concern genotypes expressed in various encodings, including an encoding which exhibits polygenic and pleiotropic properties.

Shaping Realistic Neuronal Morphologies: An Evolutionary Computation Method

“…Here, we need to introduce the term genotype which denotes the genome (also referred to as the individual), and phenotype which denotes the three dimensional structure generated from the genotype (also referred to as the virtual neuron). The development of a genotype into a phenotype is often referred to as the translation of genotype into phenotype [21]. During a single generation, each individual is translated into a virtual neuron and compared to real neurons archived as biological data: The smaller the difference with the real neuron, the higher the fitness of that individual will be, and vice-versa.…”