Adaptation and optimization of biological transport networks

It has been hypothesized that topological structures of biological transport networks are consequences of energy optimization. Motivated by experimental observation, we propose that adaptation dynamics may underlie this optimization. In contrast to the global nature of optimization, our adaptation d...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPhysical review letters Vol. 111; no. 13; p. 138701
Main Authors Hu, Dan, Cai, David
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 25.09.2013
Subjects
Adaptation, Physiological
Biological Transport
Blood Vessels - metabolism
Computer Simulation
Energy Metabolism
Models, Biological
Models, Cardiovascular
Monte Carlo Method
Physarum polycephalum - metabolism
Selection, Genetic
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Summary:It has been hypothesized that topological structures of biological transport networks are consequences of energy optimization. Motivated by experimental observation, we propose that adaptation dynamics may underlie this optimization. In contrast to the global nature of optimization, our adaptation dynamics responds only to local information and can naturally incorporate fluctuations in flow distributions. The adaptation dynamics minimizes the global energy consumption to produce optimal networks, which may possess hierarchical loop structures in the presence of strong fluctuations in flow distribution. We further show that there may exist a new phase transition as there is a critical open probability of sinks, above which there are only trees for network structures whereas below which loops begin to emerge.
ISSN:1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/physrevlett.111.138701