Predicting the topography of fitness landscapes from the structure of genotype-phenotype maps

Ruggedness, the prevalence of fitness peaks, and navigability, the existence of fitness-increasing paths to a target, are key factors affecting evolution on fitness landscapes. We analytically predict landscape ruggedness for genotype-phenotype maps with randomly assigned fitness, using only the sizes of neutral components – mutationally connected genotype sets sharing the same phenotype– and their evolvabilities, the number of neighbouring phenotypes. Further, more evolvable peaks tend to have higher fitness and a minimal evolvability is required for navigability.