Dependence of the Crossing Time on the Sequence Length in the Continuous-time Mutation-selection Model

Abstract

The dependence of the crossing time on the sequence length in the coupled and the decoupled continuous-time mutation-selection models in an asymmetric sharply-peaked landscape with a positive asymmetric parameter, r, was examined for a fixed extension parameter, E, which is defined as the average Hamming distance from the optimal allele of the initial quasispecies divided by the sequence length. Two versions of the coupled mutation-selection model, the continuous-time version and discrete-time version, were found to have the same boundary between the deterministic and the stochastic regions, which is different from the boundary between the deterministic and the stochastic regions in the decoupled continuous-time mutation-selection model. The maximum sequence length for a finite population that can evolve through the fitness barrier, e.g., within 10 generations in the decoupled continuous-time mutation-selection model, increased by approximately eight sequence elements with increasing population size by a factor of a thousand when E = 0.1 and r = 0.1. The crossing time for a finite population in the decoupled model in the stochastic region was shorter than the crossing time for a finite population in the coupled model, and the maximum evolvable sequence length for a finite population in the decoupled model was longer than the maximum evolvable sequence length for a finite population in the coupled model. This suggests that a mutation allowed at any time during the life cycle might be more effective than a mutation allowed only at reproduction events when a finite population transits to a higher fitness peak through the fitness barrier in an asymmetric sharply-peaked landscape.