Probabilistic genotype-phenotype maps reveal mutational robustness of RNA folding, spin glasses, and quantum circuits

Recent studies of genotype-phenotype maps have reported universally enhanced phenotypic robustness to genotype mutations, a feature essential to evolution. Virtually all of these studies make a simplifying assumption that each genotype—represented as a sequence—maps deterministically to a single phe...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Anna Sappington, Vaibhav Mohanty
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: American Physical Society 2025-01-01
Series:Physical Review Research
Online Access:http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.7.013118
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1832577818763984896
author Anna Sappington
Vaibhav Mohanty
author_facet Anna Sappington
Vaibhav Mohanty
author_sort Anna Sappington
collection DOAJ
description Recent studies of genotype-phenotype maps have reported universally enhanced phenotypic robustness to genotype mutations, a feature essential to evolution. Virtually all of these studies make a simplifying assumption that each genotype—represented as a sequence—maps deterministically to a single phenotype, such as a discrete structure. Here we introduce probabilistic genotype-phenotype (PrGP) maps, where each genotype maps to a vector of phenotype probabilities, as a more realistic and universal language for investigating robustness in a variety of physical, biological, and computational systems. We study three model systems to show that PrGP maps offer a generalized framework which can handle uncertainty emerging from various physical sources: (1) thermal fluctuation in RNA folding, (2) external field disorder in the spin-glass ground state search problem, and (3) superposition and entanglement in quantum circuits, which are realized experimentally on IBM quantum computers. In all three cases, we observe a biphasic robustness scaling which is enhanced relative to random expectation for more frequent phenotypes and approaches random expectation for less frequent phenotypes. We derive an analytical theory for the behavior of PrGP robustness, and we demonstrate that the theory is highly predictive of empirical robustness.
format Article
id doaj-art-72ea63834a92417a9bdbb97f92fc8b85
institution Kabale University
issn 2643-1564
language English
publishDate 2025-01-01
publisher American Physical Society
record_format Article
series Physical Review Research
spelling doaj-art-72ea63834a92417a9bdbb97f92fc8b852025-01-30T15:01:14ZengAmerican Physical SocietyPhysical Review Research2643-15642025-01-017101311810.1103/PhysRevResearch.7.013118Probabilistic genotype-phenotype maps reveal mutational robustness of RNA folding, spin glasses, and quantum circuitsAnna SappingtonVaibhav MohantyRecent studies of genotype-phenotype maps have reported universally enhanced phenotypic robustness to genotype mutations, a feature essential to evolution. Virtually all of these studies make a simplifying assumption that each genotype—represented as a sequence—maps deterministically to a single phenotype, such as a discrete structure. Here we introduce probabilistic genotype-phenotype (PrGP) maps, where each genotype maps to a vector of phenotype probabilities, as a more realistic and universal language for investigating robustness in a variety of physical, biological, and computational systems. We study three model systems to show that PrGP maps offer a generalized framework which can handle uncertainty emerging from various physical sources: (1) thermal fluctuation in RNA folding, (2) external field disorder in the spin-glass ground state search problem, and (3) superposition and entanglement in quantum circuits, which are realized experimentally on IBM quantum computers. In all three cases, we observe a biphasic robustness scaling which is enhanced relative to random expectation for more frequent phenotypes and approaches random expectation for less frequent phenotypes. We derive an analytical theory for the behavior of PrGP robustness, and we demonstrate that the theory is highly predictive of empirical robustness.http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.7.013118
spellingShingle Anna Sappington
Vaibhav Mohanty
Probabilistic genotype-phenotype maps reveal mutational robustness of RNA folding, spin glasses, and quantum circuits
Physical Review Research
title Probabilistic genotype-phenotype maps reveal mutational robustness of RNA folding, spin glasses, and quantum circuits
title_full Probabilistic genotype-phenotype maps reveal mutational robustness of RNA folding, spin glasses, and quantum circuits
title_fullStr Probabilistic genotype-phenotype maps reveal mutational robustness of RNA folding, spin glasses, and quantum circuits
title_full_unstemmed Probabilistic genotype-phenotype maps reveal mutational robustness of RNA folding, spin glasses, and quantum circuits
title_short Probabilistic genotype-phenotype maps reveal mutational robustness of RNA folding, spin glasses, and quantum circuits
title_sort probabilistic genotype phenotype maps reveal mutational robustness of rna folding spin glasses and quantum circuits
url http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.7.013118
work_keys_str_mv AT annasappington probabilisticgenotypephenotypemapsrevealmutationalrobustnessofrnafoldingspinglassesandquantumcircuits
AT vaibhavmohanty probabilisticgenotypephenotypemapsrevealmutationalrobustnessofrnafoldingspinglassesandquantumcircuits