An Illustrated Introduction to the Basic Biological Principles

TL;DR

This paper explains how the division of internal biological evolution into genotype and phenotype resolves conflicts between fitness and evolvability, shaping life's complexity and evolutionary pathways.

Contribution

It introduces a framework linking genotype-phenotype division to evolutionary complexity and development, emphasizing the role of this division in resolving evolutionary conflicts.

Findings

Genotype-phenotype division resolves fitness-evolvability conflict

The division explains the emergence of biological complexity

Genotype-phenotype mapping influences evolutionary trajectories

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.