Controversy in Evolutionary Theory: A multilevel view of the issues

TL;DR

This paper examines the controversy between different evolutionary biology perspectives, proposing a multilevel view where organism-level selection influences genomic outcomes, explaining the apparent disconnect between levels.

Contribution

It introduces a multilevel framework showing how organism-level adaptive processes shape genomic evolution, clarifying debates on natural selection and genetic drift.

Findings

Organism-level selection impacts genome-level outcomes.

Higher-level processes are often hidden at the genomic level.

The multilevel view connects various evolutionary theories.

Abstract

A conflict exists between field biologists and physiologists ("functional biologists" or "evolutionary ecologists") on the one hand and those working in molecular evolution ("evolutionary biologists" or "population geneticists") on the other concerns the relative importance of natural selection and genetic drift. This paper is concerned with this issue in the case of vertebrates such as birds, fishes, mammals, and specifically humans, and views the issue in that context from a multilevel perspective. It proposes that the resolution is that adaptive selection outcomes occurring at the organism level chain down to determine outcomes at the genome level. The multiple realizability of higher level processes at lower levels then causes the adaptive nature of such processes at the organism level to be largely hidden at the genomic level. The discussion is further related to the "negative view" of selection, the Evo-Devo and Extended Evolutionary Synthesis views, and the levels of selection debate, where processes at the population level can also chain down in a similar way