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This paper considers the integrated approach to modeling the dynamics of genetic structure and the number of natural population. A set of dynamic models with different types of natural selection is used to describe a possible mechanism for the fixing of a genetic diversity in size of the litter in coastal, continental and farmed populations of arctic fox (Alopex lagopus, Canidae, Carnivora) observed now. The most interesting results have been obtained with the model of population consisting of two stages of development. At that with the frame of this model a dynamics of population genetic structure on genotypes was analyzed to consider different reproductive abilities and fitnesses of pups on the early stage of lifecycle which defined by the single diallelic gene. This model allows to receive a monomorphism for coastal populations of arctic fox, where food resources are practically constant. As well the model allows polymorphism with cyclical fluctuations in the number and frequency of the gene in the continental populations due to regular fluctuating of rodent number, the major component of its food. In farmed populations by selective selection carried out by farmers to increase the reproductive success, this gene is a pleiotropic one (i. e., determining the survival rate of individuals both early and late stages of their life cycle); so an application of appropriate model (with the selection of pleiotropic gene) allows to get an adequate rate of elimination for small litters allele.

Bistability is a fundamental property of nonlinear systems and is found in many applied and theoretical studies of biological systems (populations and communities). In the simplest case it is expressed in the coexistence of diametrically opposed alternative stable equilibrium states of the system, and which of them will be achieved depends on the initial conditions. Bistability in simple models can lead to quad-stability as models become more complex, for example, when adding genetic, age and spatial structure. This occurs in different models from completely different subject area and leads to very interesting, often counterintuitive conclusions. In this article, we review such situations. The paper deals with bifurcations leading to bi- and quad-stability in mathematical models of the following biological objects. The first one is the system of two populations coupled by migration and under the action of natural selection, in which all genetic diversity is associated with a single diallelic locus with a significant difference in fitness for homo- and heterozygotes. The second is the system of two limited populations described by the Bazykin model or the Ricker model and coupled by migration. The third is a population with two age stages and density-dependent regulation of birth rate which is determined either only by population density, or additionally depends on the genetic structure of adjacent generations. We found that all these models have similar scenarios for the birth of equilibrium states that correspond to the formation of spatiotemporal inhomogeneity or to the differentiation by phenotypes of individuals from different age stages. Such inhomogeneity is a consequence of local bistability and appears as a result of a combination of pitchfork bifurcation (period doubling) and saddle-node bifurcation.

The functioning of DNA regulatory regions rely primarily on their physicochemical and structural properties but not on nucleotide sequences, i.e. ‘genetic text’. The formers are responsible for coding of DNA-protein interactions that govern various regulatory events. One of the characteristics is SIDD (Stress-Induced Duplex Destabilization) that quantify DNA duplex region propensity to melt under the imposed superhelical stress. The duplex property has been shown to participate in activity of various regulatory regions. Here we employ the SIDD model to calculate melting probability profiles for T7 bacteriophage promoter sequences. The genome is characterized by small size (approximately 40 thousand nucleotides) and temporal organization of expression: at the first stage of infection early T7 DNA region is transcribed by the host cell RNA polymerase, later on in life cycle phage-specific RNA polymerase performs transcription of class II and class III genes regions. Differential recognition of a particular group of promoters by the enzyme cannot be solely explained by their nucleotide sequences, because of, among other reasons, it is fairly similar among most the promoters. At the same time SIDD profiles obtained vary significantly and are clearly separated into groups corresponding to functional promoter classes of T7 DNA. For example, early promoters are affected by the same maximally destabilized DNA duplex region located at the varying region of a particular promoter. class II promoters lack substantially destabilized regions close to transcription start sites. Class III promoters, in contrast, demonstrate characteristic melting probability maxima located in the near-downstream region in all cases. Therefore, the apparent differences among the promoter groups with exceptional textual similarity (class II and class III differ by only few singular substitutions) were established. This confirms the major impact of DNA primary structure on the duplex parameter as well as a need for a broad genetic context consideration. The differences in melting probability profiles obtained using SIDD model alongside with other DNA physicochemical properties appears to be involved in differential promoter recognition by RNA polymerases.

The article is devoted to the application of various methods of mathematical analysis, search for patterns and studying the composition of nucleotides in DNA sequences at the genomic level. New methods of mathematical biology that made it possible to detect and visualize the hidden ordering of genetic nucleotide sequences located in the chromosomes of cells of living organisms described. The research was based on the work on algebraic biology of the doctor of physical and mathematical sciences S. V. Petukhov, who first introduced and justified new algebras and hypercomplex numerical systems describing genetic phenomena. This paper describes a new phase in the development of matrix methods in genetics for studying the properties of nucleotide sequences (and their physicochemical parameters), built on the principles of finite geometry. The aim of the study is to demonstrate the capabilities of new algorithms and discuss the discovered properties of genetic DNA and RNA molecules. The study includes three stages: parameterization, scaling, and visualization. Parametrization is the determination of the parameters taken into account, which are based on the structural and physicochemical properties of nucleotides as elementary components of the genome. Scaling plays the role of “focusing” and allows you to explore genetic structures at various scales. Visualization includes the selection of the axes of the coordinate system and the method of visual display. The algorithms presented in this work are put forward as a new toolkit for the development of research software for the analysis of long nucleotide sequences with the ability to display genomes in parametric spaces of various dimensions. One of the significant results of the study is that new criteria were obtained for the classification of the genomes of various living organisms to identify interspecific relationships. The new concept allows visually and numerically assessing the variability of the physicochemical parameters of nucleotide sequences. This concept also allows one to substantiate the relationship between the parameters of DNA and RNA molecules with fractal geometric mosaics, reveals the ordering and symmetry of polynucleotides, as well as their noise immunity. The results obtained justified the introduction of new terms: “genometry” as a methodology of computational strategies and “genometrica” as specific parameters of a particular genome or nucleotide sequence. In connection with the results obtained, biosemiotics and hierarchical levels of organization of living matter are raised.

This paper studies a model of a population with non-overlapping generations and density-dependent regulation of birth rate. The population breeds seasonally, and its reproductive potential is determined genetically. The model proposed combines an ecological dynamic model of a limited population with non-overlapping generations and microevolutionary model of its genetic structure dynamics for the case when adaptive trait of birth rate controlled by a single diallelic autosomal locus with allelomorphs A and a. The study showed the genetic composition of the population, namely, will it be polymorphic or monomorphic, is mainly determined by the values of the reproductive potentials of heterozygote and homozygotes. Moreover, the average reproductive potential of mature individuals and intensity of self-regulation processes determine population dynamics. In particularly, increasing the average value of the reproductive potential leads to destabilization of the dynamics of age group sizes. The intensity of self-regulation processes determines the nature of emerging oscillations, since scenario of stability loss of fixed points depends on the values of this parameter. It is shown that patterns of occurrence and evolution of cyclic dynamics regimes are mainly determined by the features of life cycle of individuals in population. The life cycle leading to existence of non-overlapping generation gives isolated subpopulations in different years, which results in the possibility of independent microevolution of these subpopulations and, as a result, the complex dynamics emergence of both stage structure and genetic one. Fixing various adaptive mutations will gradually lead to genetic (and possibly morphological) differentiation and to differences in the average reproductive potentials of subpopulations that give different values of equilibrium subpopulation sizes. Further evolutionary growth of reproductive potentials of limited subpopulations leads to their number fluctuations which can differ in both amplitude and phase.