Veigl, Sophie Juliane and Suárez, Javier and Stencel, Adrian (2022) Rethinking Hereditary Relations: The Reconstitutor as the Evolutionary Unit of Heredity. [Preprint]

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Abstract

This paper introduces the reconstitutor as a comprehensive unit of heredity within the context of evolutionary research. A reconstitutor is the structure resulting from a set of relationships between different elements or processes that are actively involved in the recreation of a specific phenotypic variant in each generation regardless of the biomolecular basis of the elements or whether they stand in a continuous line of ancestry. Firstly, we justify the necessity of introducing the reconstitutor by showing the limitations of other evolutionary conceptions of the unit of heredity, such as the replicator, the reproducer, and the Darwinian individual. We argue that these conceptions are based on the requirement of lineage formation (Stability of Lineages), which we argue to be unnecessary for the existence of evolutionary heredity. In the second part, we introduce the reconstitutor, which we base on the concept of Stability of Traits, and illustrate how it covers cases of hereditary phenomena (small RNAs, microbiota) not covered by the previous accounts. Secondly, we illustrate how the reconstitutor could serve as a platform to rethink ecological inheritance and other forms of inheritance that have been recently introduced under the song/singer model of evolution.

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Veigl, Sophie Juliane sophie.juliane.veigl@univie.ac.at 0000-0002-9475-1088 Suárez, Javier javier.suarez@uj.edu.pl 0000-0001-5851-2277 Stencel, Adrian adstencel@gmail.com
Keywords:	biological individuality; microbiome; holobiont; regulatory RNAs; epigenetics; niche construction; interactor; units of selection; misplaced concreteness; song/singer model
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Biology Specific Sciences > Biology > Developmental Biology Specific Sciences > Biology > Evolutionary Theory Specific Sciences > Biology > Molecular Biology/Genetics
Depositing User:	Dr Javier Suárez
Date Deposited:	07 Jul 2022 20:01
Last Modified:	07 Jul 2022 20:01
Item ID:	20838
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Biology Specific Sciences > Biology > Developmental Biology Specific Sciences > Biology > Evolutionary Theory Specific Sciences > Biology > Molecular Biology/Genetics
Date:	2022
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/20838

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