GeneSims

Welcome To GeneSims!

GeneSims is an interactive web-based toolkit designed to model key processes in population genetics, including genetic drift, natural selection, mutation, and migration. These simulations allow users to visualize how allele frequencies change over time under different evolutionary pressures in a controlled and customizable environment.

The app provides several modules:

• Simple Drift: Models random changes in allele frequencies due to sampling error in small populations.
• Drift with Migration: Simulates gene flow between populations, showing how migration rates influence genetic diversity.
• Drift with Mutation: Explores the role of mutation in introducing new alleles and maintaining variation over generations.
• Simple Selection: Demonstrates how selection coefficients affect allele frequency trajectories based on relative fitness values.
• Selection with Drift: Combines natural selection and stochastic drift, offering a more realistic glimpse of evolution in finite populations.
• W Bar: Visualizes the population mean fitness 𝑤 bar across allele frequency ranges, helping users understand how selection shapes fitness landscapes.

Each module features real-time plotting with interactive controls, enabling users to step through generations, adjust parameters, and compare multiple simulation runs side-by-side. Whether you're a student, educator, or researcher, GeneSims provides an intuitive way to grasp the dynamic forces that shape genetic variation within populations.

How To Build The Project Yourself

The only dependency required for this application that needs to be installed manually is cargo and can be installed by:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

and you can test the installation by running:

cargo --version

Clone the repo:

git clone https://github.com/HARDIntegral/GeneSims.git
cd GeneSims

Build the static site:

cd frontend
trunk build --release --dist ../backend/static

Build the Actix backend:

cd ../backend
cargo build --release

Note: if you are running the site locally, change the ip address from 0.0.0.0 to 127.0.0.1 and set a desired port value.

And simply to run the application:

cargo run