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Article
Clustering and Phrase Transitions on a Neutral Landscape
Europhysics Letters (2011)
  • Nevena Maric, University of Missouri-St. Louis
  • Adam D. Scott, University of Missouri
  • Dawn M. King, University of Missouri
  • Sonya Bahar, University of Missouri–St. Louis
Abstract
Recent computational studies have shown that speciation can occur under neutral conditions, i.e., when the simulated organisms all have identical fitness. These works bear comparison with mathematical studies of clustering on neutral landscapes in the context of branching and coalescing random walks. Here, we show that sympatric clustering/speciation can occur on a neutral landscape whose dimensions specify only the simulated organisms' phenotypes. We demonstrate that clustering occurs not only in the case of assortative mating, but also in the case of asexual fission; it is not observed in the control case of random mating. We find that the population size and the number of clusters undergo a second-order non-equilibrium phase transition as the maximum mutation size is varied.
Publication Date
2011
Citation Information
Nevena Maric, Adam D. Scott, Dawn M. King and Sonya Bahar. "Clustering and Phrase Transitions on a Neutral Landscape" Europhysics Letters Vol. 102 Iss. 6 (2011)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/nevena-maric/12/