Chemical genetic programming - evolution of amino acid rewriting rules used for genotype-phenotype translation

A new method of genetic programming, named chemical genetic programming (CGP), which enables evolutionary optimization of the mapping from genotypic strings to phenotypic trees is proposed. A cell is evolved, and includes a DNA string that codes genetic information and smaller molecules for the mapping from DNA code to computational functionality. Genetic modification of a cell´s DNA allows the DNA code and the genotype-to-phenotype translation to coevolve. Building an optimal translation table enhances evolution within a population while maintaining the necessary diversity to explore the entire search space.