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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 23, 2025

Author Spotlight: Generating Neuronal Phenotypic Profiles - A Protocol to Culture and Image Human Midbrain Dopaminergic Neurons
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Bring back the phenotype.

César Marín1,2, Michael J Wade3

  • 1Centro de Investigación e Innovación para el Cambio Climático (CiiCC), Universidad Santo Tomás, Ave Ramón Picarte 1130, 5090000, Valdivia, Chile.

The New Phytologist
|April 17, 2025
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Biologists should shift from a gene-centric to a phenotype-centric view of evolution. This approach better explains complex evolutionary phenomena like epistasis and niche construction.

Keywords:
adaptationist biasepistasisgene‐centric viewmultilevel selectionniche constructionnongenetic inheritancephenotypeunits of selection

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Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary biology
  • Genetics
  • Phenotypic plasticity

Background:

  • The traditional gene-centric view of evolution, focusing on allele frequency changes, dominates biological science.
  • This perspective simplifies complex interactions, assuming non-structured populations and random gene interactions.
  • This gene-centric model struggles to account for real-world biological complexity and interactions.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To critique the gene-centric view of evolution.
  • To advocate for a return to a phenotype-centric perspective in evolutionary biology.
  • To demonstrate the necessity of a phenotypic view for understanding key evolutionary processes.

Main Methods:

  • Review and critique of the assumptions underlying the gene-centric evolutionary model.
  • Conceptual analysis integrating genetic interactions, environmental influences, and non-genetic inheritance.
  • Examination of phenomena such as epistasis, multilevel selection, and niche construction.

Main Results:

  • Genes do not possess agency in natural selection; they replicate but lack phenotypic variation or differential proliferation.
  • Phenotypic variation and differential proliferation are characteristics of 'interactors,' the units of selection.
  • A phenotypic view is essential for explaining epistasis, nongenetic inheritance, multilevel selection, and niche construction.

Conclusions:

  • The gene-centric view oversimplifies evolution by assigning agency to genes.
  • A phenotypic perspective is crucial for a comprehensive understanding of evolutionary mechanisms.
  • Evolution is a complex interplay of factors, extending beyond simple genetic replication.