Artificial Gene Regulatory Networks - A Review

Sylvain Cussat-Blanc (1, 2) , Kyle Harrington (3) , Wolfgang Banzhaf (4)

1 IRIT-REVA - Real Expression Artificial Life
2 UT Capitole - Université Toulouse Capitole
3 University of Idaho [Moscow, USA]
4 Michigan State University [East Lansing]

In nature, gene regulatory networks are a key mediator between the information stored in the DNA of living organisms (their genotype) and the structural and behavioral expression this finds in their bodies, surviving in the world (their phenotype). They integrate environmental signals, steer development, buffer stochasticity, and allow evolution to proceed. In engineering, modeling and implementations of artificial gene regulatory networks have been an expanding field of research and development over the past few decades. This review discusses the concept of gene regulation, describes the current state of the art in gene regulatory networks, including modeling and simulation, and reviews their use in artificial evolutionary settings. We provide evidence forthe benefits of this concept in natural and the engineering domains.

Mots clés: Gene regulatory networks; Control dynamics; Evolutionary algorithms; Morphogenesis; Neuromodulation

Domaines: Algorithme et structure de données [cs.DS]

Sylvain Cussat-Blanc, Kyle Harrington, Wolfgang Banzhaf. Artificial Gene Regulatory Networks - A Review. Artificial Life, 2019, 24 (4), pp.296-328. ⟨10.1162/artl_a_00267⟩. ⟨hal-02092957⟩