Scaffolding individuality: coordination, cooperation, collaboration and community.

Area of Science:

• Evolutionary biology
• Theoretical biology
• Developmental biology

Background:

• Evolutionary transitions (ET) are challenging to study without circularity, as key features like units of selection and individuality are products of the transition itself.
• Existing frameworks struggle to define ET without referring to its outcomes, leading to conceptual difficulties.

Purpose of the Study:

• To provide a non-circular framework for understanding evolutionary transitions (ET).
• To identify necessary interactions for ET that differ from interactions within existing units.
• To propose a theoretical perspective applicable across diverse evolutionary scenarios.

Main Methods:

• Describing ET by analyzing the nature of interactions among community members.
• Characterizing an idealized sequence of collective processes: coordination, cooperation, and collaboration (3Cs).
• Examining developmental interactions and their role in scaffolding new levels of individuality and inheritance systems.

Main Results:

• Identified specific types of interactions necessary for ET that are not present within the constituent units.
• Proposed that reproducing systems hybridize with environmental components via eco-devo scaffolding interactions, forming communities.
• Demonstrated that communities can develop their own inheritance systems, becoming individuals at a higher level.

Conclusions:

• Treating individuality as a special case of collectivity offers significant explanatory benefits for understanding ET.
• The coordination, cooperation, and collaboration (3Cs) sequence scaffolds transitions to new collective individuality.
• Developmental interactions are crucial drivers for both new levels of individuality and inherited information systems during ET.