The role of internal and external constructive processes in evolution

Abstract

The architects of the Modern Synthesis viewed development as an unfolding of a form already latent in the genes. However, developing organisms play a far more active, constructive role in both their own development and their evolution than the Modern Synthesis proclaims. Here we outline what is meant by constructive processes in development and evolution, emphasizing how constructive development is a shared feature of many of the research developments central to the developing Extended Evolutionary Synthesis. Our article draws out the parallels between constructive physiological processes expressed internally and in the external environment (niche construction), showing how in each case they play important and not fully recognized evolutionary roles by modifying and biasing natural selection.

Evolutionary Connectionism: Algorithmic Principles Underlying the Evolution of Biological Organisation in Evo-Devo, Evo-Eco and Evolutionary Transitions

“…This biases the combinations of particles that are created in a more radical (multi-scale) manner than the evolution of developmental interactions (Watson et al 2011b). Specifically, whereas developmental organisations bias phenotypic variability (by recreating specific phenotypic patterns through the organisation of internal selection or context-sensitive differential growth between components) (Laland et al 2014), reproductive organisations can bias genetic variability (by enabling the combination of genetic differences in a collective to be inherited to descendent collectives as a unit and supressing internal differential selection between them).…”

“…within a single evolutionary unit. However, such transitions create a new ‘internal selection’ ecology implemented in a new inheritance system, e.g., during ontogenesis, different cell types grow into tissues through (context sensitive) replication of epigenetic states (Jablonka 1994; Laland et al 2014; Huang et al 2005). The population dynamics of these cell populations is affected by inter-cellular interactions and competition for resources within the embryo that determine which types grow where, when and how much (Buss 1987).…”

The Semiosis of “Side Effects” in Genetic Interventions

“…Constructing niches is resource intensive and would not occur unless it was likely to increase fitness for the organism and/or its offspring. This is easily accomplished when the constructive activities have been selected for and therefore stereotyped (not unlike Dawkins’ ‘extended phenotype’ (Dawkins 1982), which is presented simply as an “externalized projection of the genotype” (Laland et al 2014a, b)), but niche construction advocates insist that many niche construction activities and their broader consequences are often contingent and underdetermined. The implication is that novel niche constructing behaviour cannot be blind.…”

Why are individuals so different from each other?

“…Some of the impact is subtle, such as when a plant sheds its leaves that fall to the ground and change the characteristics of the soil in which its own roots and those of its descendants grow. These ideas have been developed extensively and are now referred to as 'niche construction' (Odling-Smee et al, 2003;Laland et al, 2014). One example is provided by the two species of beavers (Castor canadensis and Castor fiber) that change their environment by building dams and creating lakes for themselves.…”