Biological Information as Choice and Construction

Pocheville, Arnaud

doi:10.1086/699832

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 35 publications

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“…Heredity : Patterns of parent–offspring resemblance. Today, it is widely accepted in biology that heredity results from parents transmitting information to their offspring, though the deep nature of this information is still at the heart of a hot debate [25–28]. Heredity is the cornerstone of evolution through natural or artificial selection, as well as through drift.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early in life effects and heredity: reconciling neo-Darwinism with neo-Lamarckism under the banner of the inclusive evolutionary synthesis

Danchin

Pocheville

Huneman

2019

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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Recent discoveries show that early in life effects often have long-lasting influences, sometimes even spanning several generations. Such intergenerational effects of early life events appear not easily reconcilable with strict genetic inheritance. However, an integrative evolutionary medicine of early life effects needs a sound view of inheritance in development and evolution. Here, we show how to articulate the gene-centred and non-gene-centred visions of inheritance. We first recall the coexistence of two gene concepts in scientific discussions, a statistical one (focused on patterns of parent–offspring resemblance, and implicitly including non-DNA-sequence-based resemblance), and a molecular one (based on the DNA sequence). We then show how all the different mechanisms of inheritance recently discovered can be integrated into an inclusive theory of evolution where different mechanisms would enable adaptation to changing environments at different timescales. One surprising consequence of this integrative vision of inheritance is that early in life effects start much earlier than fertilization. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Developing differences: early-life effects and evolutionary medicine’.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early in life effects and heredity: reconciling neo-Darwinism with neo-Lamarckism under the banner of the inclusive evolutionary synthesis

Danchin

Pocheville

Huneman

2019

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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More than Fifty Shades of Epigenetics for the Study of Early in Life Effects in Medicine, Ecology, and Evolution

Danchin

2022

Fascinating Life Sciences

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The genotype–phenotype distinction: from Mendelian genetics to 21st century biology

2022

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The Genotype-Phenotype (G-P) distinction was proposed in the context of Mendelian genetics, in the wake of late nineteenth century studies about heredity. In this paper, we provide a conceptual analysis that highlights that the G-P distinction was grounded on three pillars: observability, transmissibility, and causality. Originally, the genotype is the non-observable and transmissible cause of its observable and non-transmissible effect, the phenotype. We argue that the current developments of biology have called the validity of such pillars into question. First, molecular biology has unveiled the putative material substrate of the genotype (qua DNA), making it an observable object. Second, numerous findings on non-genetic heredity suggest that some phenotypic traits can be directly transmitted. Third, recent organicist approaches to biological phenomena have emphasized the reciprocal causality between parts of a biological system, which notably applies to the relation between genotypes and phenotypes. As a consequence, we submit that the G-P distinction has lost its general validity, although it can still apply to specific situations. This calls for forging new frameworks and concepts to better describe heredity and development.

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Biological Information as Choice and Construction

Cited by 4 publications

References 35 publications

Early in life effects and heredity: reconciling neo-Darwinism with neo-Lamarckism under the banner of the inclusive evolutionary synthesis

Early in life effects and heredity: reconciling neo-Darwinism with neo-Lamarckism under the banner of the inclusive evolutionary synthesis

More than Fifty Shades of Epigenetics for the Study of Early in Life Effects in Medicine, Ecology, and Evolution

The genotype–phenotype distinction: from Mendelian genetics to 21st century biology

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