Gene

Is a sequence of nucleotides. Gene can consist of one or more nucleotide. Each gene can code some basic characteristic (like reproductive rate) or trait property, or can code nothing (kinda trash gene).

One characteristic can be coded not by singe but by several genes in non-linear fashion, so it a challenge for the player to determine what effect is produced by a given gene.

Because off each gene is represented by a bit string, it can be represented as unsigned integer number.

Consider following example: DNA has genes A and B which are shown below.

 _A_        _B_
/   \      /   \
▯▯▯▯▯|....|▮▮▮▮▮ 

Suppose, speed of bacteria is coded by this two genes in that way: speed := value(A) * value(B). Because of integer value(A) is zero, resulting speed is also zero, so bacteria can't even move.