Topological effects of fitness landscapes on the process of fixation of advantageous mutations

Abstract

We investigate the dependence of the dynamics of fixation of advantageous mutations on the topology of fitness landscapes. We study the problem by means of a simple model of fitness landscape at which we tune the degree of correlation between related sequences by changing the correlation parameter λ . We observe the existence of two evolutionary regimes: one for small to intermediate values of selective effect of beneficial mutations s , and another for high values of s . In the former, the likelihood of ultimate fixation of advantageous mutations, when we consider uncorrelated or low correlated fitness landscapes is greater than that for highly correlated fitness landscapes when compared to the low correlated case. In the second regime, we obtain an opposed behavior and now the probability of fixation is higher for highly correlated fitness landscapes when, compared to the low correlated case.