Evolvability Is an Evolved Ability: The Coding Concept as the Arch-Unit of Natural Selection

Area of Science:

• Origin of Life
• Evolutionary Biology
• Information Theory

Background:

• Living matter's physical processes involve information encoding and transfer.
• This information is crucial for persistence, multiplication, and Darwinian evolution.
• Evolvability, the capacity to evolve new traits, depends on regulatory networks governing information flow.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose that the coding concept of life is a fundamental unit of natural selection.
• To explore how information processing in biological systems drives evolution and persistence.
• To analyze the role of the coding concept in the long-term survival of Earth's biosphere.

Main Methods:

• Conceptual analysis of information transfer in living systems.
• Examination of the relationship between coding concepts and evolvability.
• Historical perspective on the Earth's biosphere and its resilience.

Main Results:

• Life's algorithmicity, driven by encoded information, is essential for evolution.
• Evolvability is an evolved trait dependent on prior regulatory networks.
• The fundamental coding concept (nucleic acids, codons) has remained stable, conferring significant evolvability.

Conclusions:

• The coding concept, enabling a biosphere's evolvability, is a unit of natural selection.
• This concept has been critical for the biosphere's survival through environmental changes and mass extinctions.
• The principles of information coding and selection may apply universally to the emergence of life.