We propose a new method for detecting conserved RNA secondary structures in a family of related RNA sequences. Our method is based on a combination of thermodynamic structure prediction and phylogenetic comparison. In contrast to purely phylogenetic methods, our algorithm can be used for small...

We show that the problem of designing RNA sequences that can fold into multiple stable secondary structures can be transformed into a combinatorial optimization problem that can be solved by means of simple heuristics. Hence it is feasible to design RNA switches with prescribed strucutral...

The distinction between continuous and discontinuous transitions is a long-standing problem in the theory of evolution. Continuity being a topological property, we present a formalism that treats the space of phenotypes as a (finite) topological space, with a topology that is derived from the...

We cast some classes of fitness landscapes as problems in spectral analysis on various Cayley graphs. In particular, landscapes derived from RNA folding are realized on Hamming graphs and analyzed in terms of Walsh transforms; assignment problems are interpreted as functions on the symmetric...

Many properties of organisms show great robustness against mutations. Whether this robustness is an evolved property or intrinsic to genetic systems is by and large unknown. An evolutionary origin of robustness would require a rethinking of key concepts in the field of molecular evolution, such...