AEGIS: An In Silico Tool to Model Genome Evolution in Age-Structured Populations

Abstract

AEGIS (Ageing of Evolving Genomes In Silico) is a versatile population-genetics numerical-simulation tool that enables the evolution of life history trajectories under sexual and asexual reproduction and a wide variety of evolutionary constraints. By encoding age-specific survival and reproduction probabilities as discrete genomic elements, AEGIS allows these probabilities to evolve freely and independently over time. Simulation of population evolution with AEGIS demonstrates that ageing-like phenotypes evolve in stable environments under a wide range of conditions, that life history trajectories depend heavily on mutation rates, and that sexual populations are better able to accumulate high levels of beneficial mutations affecting early-life survival and reproduction. AEGIS is free and open-source, and aims to become a standard reference tool in the study of life-history evolution and the evolutionary biology of ageing.