Phenoptosis and the Various Types of Natural Selection

In the first description of evolution, the fundamental mechanism is the natural selection favoring the individuals best suited for survival and reproduction (selection at the individual level or classical Darwinian selection). However, this is a very reductive description of natural selection that does not consider or explain a long series of known phenomena, including those in which an individual sacrifices or jeopardizes his life on the basis of genetically determined mechanisms (i.e., phenoptosis). In fact, in addition to (i) selection at the individual level, it is essential to consider other types of natural selection such as those concerning: (ii) kin selection and some related forms of group selection; (iii) the interactions between the innumerable species that constitute a holobiont; (iv) the origin of the eukaryotic cell from prokaryotic organisms; (v) the origin of multicellular eukaryotic organisms from unicellular organisms; (vi) eusociality (e.g., in many species of ants, bees, termites); (vii) selection at the level of single genes, or groups of genes; (viii) the interactions between individuals (or more precisely their holobionts) of the innumerable species that make up an ecosystem. These forms of natural selection, which are all effects and not violations of the classical Darwinian selection, also show how concepts as life, species, individual, and phenoptosis are somewhat not entirely defined and somehow arbitrary. Furthermore, the idea of organisms selected on the basis of their survival and reproduction capabilities is intertwined with that of organisms also selected on the basis of their ability to cooperate and interact, even by losing their lives or their distinct identities.