Evolvability and Selection in a Tetra-Stranded Genome : Robustness, Modularity, and Adaptive Dynamics in Q-DNA
| dc.contributor.author | Barack Ndenga | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2025-12-27T20:30:17Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2025-12-27 | |
| dc.description | Replication fidelity and structural stability are necessary but insufficient conditions for a hereditary polymer to qualify as a biological system. To participate in Darwinian evolution, a genome must support heritable variation, differential fitness, and sustained adaptive exploration of genotype space. The capacity to evolve—evolvability—is therefore the ultimate test of any proposed genetic architecture. In this work, I investigate the evolvability of Q-DNA, defined as a canonical tetra-stranded hereditary polymer, and analyze the conditions under which tetra-stranded heredity can support evolutionary dynamics. Using fitness landscape arguments and conceptual evolutionary simulations, I show that multi-strand encoding fundamentally reshapes the genotype–phenotype map, introducing strong correlations between mutations and altering the local topology of accessible genotype space. I identify a family of robustness–innovation trade-offs specific to Q-DNA, in which structural redundancy and correlated mutations can buffer deleterious changes while simultaneously constraining or redirecting adaptive exploration. Depending on parameters such as coupling strength, noise level, and decoding rules, Q-DNA systems may favor slow but highly robust evolution, or alternatively enable punctuated bursts of innovation following constraint relaxation. In addition, multi-strand encoding naturally promotes modularity, supporting hierarchical organization and long-term evolutionary persistence. Finally, I formulate falsifiable evolutionary predictions, including excess neutral mutations, episodic adaptation, and enhanced lineage survival under high noise conditions. By treating evolvability as a conditional property emerging from structural and informational constraints, this work establishes selection and adaptive dynamics as the final decisive axis for evaluating Q-DNA as a viable hereditary system and completes a coherent theoretical framework for tetra-stranded genetics within evolutionary theory, synthetic biology, and origin-of-life research. | |
| dc.description.abstract | Stability and replication are necessary but insufficient conditions for a hereditary polymer to qualify as a biological system. To participate in evolution, a genome must support heritable variation, differential fitness, and adaptive exploration of genotype space. In this work, I investigate the evolvability of Q-DNA, defined as a canonical tetra-stranded hereditary polymer, and analyze the conditions under which tetra-stranded heredity can support evolutionary dynamics. Using fitness landscape arguments and evolutionary simulations at a conceptual level, I show that multi-strand encoding introduces distinctive trade-offs between robustness and innovation, alters mutational neighborhoods, and reshapes adaptive speed. I identify regimes in which Q-DNA favors slow but highly robust evolution, as well as regimes permitting rapid innovation under constrained noise, thereby rendering tetra-stranded heredity evolutionarily viable in principle. | |
| dc.description.provenance | Submitted by Barack Ndenga (ndengabarack@gmail.com) on 2025-12-27T20:30:17Z No. of bitstreams: 2 101st .pdf: 292060 bytes, checksum: 40c3662f296af4611e7d930f1220bb51 (MD5) license_rdf: 1166 bytes, checksum: d700fae5b268849d8bbda3dffdc09cde (MD5) | en |
| dc.description.provenance | Made available in DSpace on 2025-12-27T20:30:17Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 101st .pdf: 292060 bytes, checksum: 40c3662f296af4611e7d930f1220bb51 (MD5) license_rdf: 1166 bytes, checksum: d700fae5b268849d8bbda3dffdc09cde (MD5) Previous issue date: 2025-12-27 | en |
| dc.description.sponsorship | None | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://africarxiv.ubuntunet.net/handle/1/10677 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | |
| dc.publisher | Publisher | |
| dc.rights | Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States | en |
| dc.rights.uri | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/ | |
| dc.title | Evolvability and Selection in a Tetra-Stranded Genome : Robustness, Modularity, and Adaptive Dynamics in Q-DNA | |
| dc.type | Article |