Figure 6

Optimization of phenotypic complexity (PCPC). A) Evolution of fitness against PCPC for 50 19-nodes networks evolved on OLP 4 during the adaptive process. Gray line represents the fitness versus PCPC trajectory of the population and black dots the position of the most common genotype in the population each 10⁴ generations. High PCPC was required to reach high fitness. B) Same as in A except that the average pleiotropy of networks was plotted instead of their PCPC. C) Final fitness reached under an "intense selection" adaptation process after 10⁶ generations in two environments (OLP 3, light gray and OLP 8, dark gray) for networks of varying sizes as a function of evolved complexity PCPC. For each OLP a different range of optimal PCPC evolved and maximized fitness. D) Distribution of PCPC estimated on 100 random networks and 100 networks adapted to an OLP of 8 (top panel). Distribution of the PCPC estimated on networks, derived from the previous ones, after adaptation to OLP 4. PCPC converged, either up or down, towards an intermediate and optimal value.