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Biological monitoring of environmental quality: The use of developmental instability

January 1, 1994

Distributed robustness is thought to influence the buffering of random phenotypic variation through the scale-free topology of gene regulatory, metabolic, and protein-protein interaction networks. If this hypothesis is true, then the phenotypic response to the perturbation of particular nodes in such a network should be proportional to the number of links those nodes make with neighboring nodes. This suggests a probability distribution approximating an inverse power-law of random phenotypic variation. Zero phenotypic variation, however, is impossible, because random molecular and cellular processes are essential to normal development. Consequently, a more realistic distribution should have a y-intercept close to zero in the lower tail, a mode greater than zero, and a long (fat) upper tail. The double Pareto-lognormal (DPLN) distribution is an ideal candidate distribution. It consists of a mixture of a lognormal body and upper and lower power-law tails.

Publication Year 1994
Title Biological monitoring of environmental quality: The use of developmental instability
Authors D.C. Freeman, J.M. Emlen, J.H. Graham, R. A. Hough, T.A. Bannon
Publication Type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Series Title Journal of Environmental Engineering
Index ID 70180361
Record Source USGS Publications Warehouse
USGS Organization Western Fisheries Research Center