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Adaptive multiscapes: an up-to-date metaphor to visualize molecular adaptation

Overview of attention for article published in Biology Direct, February 2017
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  • In the top 25% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (89th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (80th percentile)

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37 X users

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Title
Adaptive multiscapes: an up-to-date metaphor to visualize molecular adaptation
Published in
Biology Direct, February 2017
DOI 10.1186/s13062-017-0178-1
Pubmed ID
Authors

Pablo Catalán, Clemente F. Arias, Jose A. Cuesta, Susanna Manrubia

Abstract

Wright's metaphor of the fitness landscape has shaped and conditioned our view of the adaptation of populations for almost a century. Since its inception, and including criticism raised by Wright himself, the concept has been surrounded by controversy. Among others, the debate stems from the intrinsic difficulty to capture important features of the space of genotypes, such as its high dimensionality or the existence of abundant ridges, in a visually appealing two-dimensional picture. Two additional currently widespread observations come to further constrain the applicability of the original metaphor: the very skewed distribution of phenotype sizes (which may actively prevent, due to entropic effects, the achievement of fitness maxima), and functional promiscuity (i.e. the existence of secondary functions which entail partial adaptation to environments never encountered before by the population). Here we revise some of the shortcomings of the fitness landscape metaphor and propose a new "scape" formed by interconnected layers, each layer containing the phenotypes viable in a given environment. Different phenotypes within a layer are accessible through mutations with selective value, while neutral mutations cause displacements of populations within a phenotype. A different environment is represented as a separated layer, where phenotypes may have new fitness values, other phenotypes may be viable, and the same genotype may yield a different phenotype, representing genotypic promiscuity. This scenario explicitly includes the many-to-many structure of the genotype-to-phenotype map. A number of empirical observations regarding the adaptation of populations in the light of adaptive multiscapes are reviewed. Several shortcomings of Wright's visualization of fitness landscapes can be overcome through adaptive multiscapes. Relevant aspects of population adaptation, such as neutral drift, functional promiscuity or environment-dependent fitness, as well as entropic trapping and the concomitant impossibility to reach fitness peaks are visualized at once. Adaptive multiscapes should aid in the qualitative understanding of the multiple pathways involved in evolutionary dynamics. This article was reviewed by Eugene Koonin and Ricard Solé.

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The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 37 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 46 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Canada 1 2%
Unknown 45 98%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Bachelor 7 15%
Researcher 6 13%
Student > Ph. D. Student 5 11%
Student > Master 4 9%
Student > Doctoral Student 3 7%
Other 11 24%
Unknown 10 22%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 15 33%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 10 22%
Business, Management and Accounting 2 4%
Environmental Science 1 2%
Arts and Humanities 1 2%
Other 7 15%
Unknown 10 22%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 20. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 20 November 2018.
All research outputs
#1,815,899
of 25,416,581 outputs
Outputs from Biology Direct
#58
of 537 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#34,801
of 324,186 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Biology Direct
#2
of 5 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,416,581 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 92nd percentile: it's in the top 10% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 537 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 10.3. This one has done well, scoring higher than 89% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 324,186 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 89% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 5 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has scored higher than 3 of them.