Molecular Labor Division: Its Cause and Consequence

TL;DR

This paper explores how the division of internal biological processes into genotype and phenotype resolves evolutionary conflicts, explaining its role in life's complexity and evolutionary pathways.

Contribution

It proposes that the division into DNA/RNA pattern formation and protein function is fundamental to resolving fitness-evolvability conflicts and shaping evolution.

Findings

Genotype-phenotype division resolves universal fitness-evolvability conflict.

This division is key to the complexity of life.

Genotype-phenotype mapping influences evolutionary paths.

Abstract

Both external environmental selection and internal lower-level evolution are essential for an integral picture of evolution. This paper proposes that the division of internal evolution into DNA/RNA pattern formation (genotype) and protein functional action (phenotype) resolves a universal conflict between fitness and evolvability. Specifically, this paper explains how this universal conflict drove the emergence of genotype-phenotype division, why this labor division is responsible for the extraordinary complexity of life, and how the specific ways of genotype-phenotype mapping in the labor division determine the paths and forms of evolution and development.