A Simple Evolutionary Algorithm for Efficient RNA Design

Authors: Merleau NSC, Smerlak M

Published in: GECCO 2021 (2021)

Citations: 11

Abstract:
RNA design — finding a sequence that folds into a given target structure — is framed as a combinatorial optimization problem. This paper presents a simple evolutionary algorithm operating through local sequence mutations guided by structural distance to the target. Applied to the Eterna100 benchmark, the algorithm achieves competitive solution rates with significantly fewer fitness evaluations than state-of-the-art methods, demonstrating that simple selection pressure on locally relevant mutations suffices for efficient RNA inverse folding.