Modularity in Evolution: Some Low-Level Questions
Lee Altenberg
In
Modularity: Understanding the Development and Evolution of Complex Natural Systems, Werner Callebaut and Diego Rasskin-Gutman, editors. MIT Press, 2004.
Proceedings of the Konrad Lorentz Institute Workshop, Organized by Werner Callebaut and Diego Rasskin-Gutman, October 2000, Altenberg, Austria.
Quantitative mutational effects under the ``House of Cards'' vs. ``random-walk'' assumptions.
Conclusion
I have endeavored in this essay to delve into some of the low-level conceptual issues associated with the idea of modularity in the genotype-phenotype map. My main proposal is that the evolutionary advantages that have been attributed to modularity do not derive from modularity per se. Rather, they require that there be an ``alignment'' between the spaces of phenotypic variation, and the selection gradients that are available to the organism. Modularity in the genotype-phenotype map may make such an alignment more readily attained, but it is not sufficient; the appropriate phenotype-fitness map in conjunction with the genotype-phenotype map is also necessary for evolvability.
Lee Altenberg's Home Page |
Papers |
E-mail me
