To distinguish continuous from discontinuous evolutionary change, a relation of nearness between phenotypes is needed. Such a relation is based on the probability of one phenotype being accessible from another through changes in the genotype. This is exemplified by calculating the shape...

The family Picornaviridae contains important pathogens including, for example, Hepatitis A virus and Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus. The genome of these viruses is a single messenger-active (+)-RNA of 7200 to 8500nts. Besides coding for the viral proteins, it also contains functionally important...

An algorithm is presented for generating rigorously all suboptimal secondary structures between the minimum free energy and an arbitrary upper limit. The algorithm performs particularly well in the vicinity of the minimum free energy. This enables the efficient approximation of statistical...

Folding of RNA sequences into secondary structures is viewed as a map that assigns a uniquely defined base pairing pattern to every sequence. This mapping is non-invertible since many sequences fold into the same (secondary) structure or shape. The preimages of the map, called neutral networks,...

We study the stochastic folding kinetics of RNA sequences into secondary structures with a new algorithm based on the formation, dissociation, and the shifting of individual base pairs. We discuss folding mechanisms and the correlation between the barrier structure of the conformational...

RNA folding from sequences into secondary structures is a simple yet powerful, biophysically grounded model of a genotype-phenotype map in which concepts like plasticity, evolvability, epistasis and modularity not only can be precisely defined and statistically measured, but reveal simultaneous...