Figure 2.

Population diversity in phenotype and genotype spaces. The phenotype of molecules is represented by their folded secondary structure. Phenotypes in an optimized population are close to the target structure and have typically a small structural distance to S (a). However, the population is spread in the space of genotypes (b). An adapting population is approaching the target (c). Due to the fast inheritance of the best (suboptimal) structure found, the dispersion in the space of genotypes is relatively small (d). A population subjected to periodic bottlenecks spreads in the space of phenotypes due to frequent perturbations (e). Since all molecules come from a recent parent sequence, the dispersion in the space of genotypes is small (f).