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Evolution, Development and Environment Toward Adaptation through Phenotypic Plasticity and Exploitation of External Information

Biological organisms have an inherent ability to respond to environmental changes. The response can emerge as organisms that can develop into structural and behavioural different phenotypes. To achieve such properties in an artificial developmental setting external environmental information is included in the gene regulation of the developmental model. This implies interplay between evolution, development and the environment. An experimental approach is taken to investigate this interplay. The test case chosen is evolution of robustness to environmental fluctuations. Development models with and without environmental information included in the gene regulation are compared. Further, the developing organisms of the two models are exposed to environmental fluctuations for a more extensive investigation. The results indicate that including external information in the gene regulation can be favourable and exploitable, particularly for organisms developing in a dynamic environment.