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Evolution-Development Congruence in Pattern Formation Dynamics: Bifurcations in Gene Expressions and Regulation of Networks Structures

Search for possible relationships between phylogeny and ontogeny is one of the most important issues in the field of evolutionary developmental biology. By representing developmental dynamics of spatially located cells with gene expression dynamics with cell-to-cell interaction under external morphogen gradient, evolved are gene regulation networks under mutation and selection with the fitness to approach a prescribed spatial pattern of expressed genes. For most of thousands of numerical evolution experiments, evolution of pattern over generations and development of pattern by an evolved network exhibit remarkable congruence. Here, both the pattern dynamics consist of several epochs to form successive stripe formations between quasi-stationary regimes. In evolution, the regimes are generations needed to hit relevant mutations, while in development, they are due to the emergence of slowly varying expression that controls the pattern change. Successive pattern changes are thus generated, which are regulated by successive combinations of feedback or feedforward regulations under the upstream feedforward network that reads the morphogen gradient. By using a pattern generated by the upstream feedforward network as a boundary condition, downstream networks form later stripe patterns. These epochal changes in development and evolution are represented as same bifurcations in dynamical-systems theory, and this agreement of bifurcations lead to the evolution-development congruences. Violation of the evolution-development congruence, observed exceptionally, is shown to be originated in alteration of the boundary due to mutation at the upstream feedforward network. Our results provide a new look on developmental stages, punctuated equilibrium, developmental bottlenecks, and evolutionary acquisition of novelty in morphogenesis.