claim

active

claim:acting-with-unity-of-purpose-in-multicellular-organisms-does-not-require-genetic-homogeneity

Acting with unity of purpose in multicellular organisms does not require genetic homogeneity

Source paper

extracted_from

Design for an Individual: Connectionist Approaches to the Evolutionary Transitions in Individuality

(2022) · Watson, Richard A. · Levin, Michael · Buckley, Christopher L.

Neighborhood — ranked by edge-count

Communities (2)

community

Causal emergence in biological systems
members_of
Examines how macro-scale causal power exceeds micro-scale in living and learning systems.
Evolutionary individuality and hierarchical agency
members_of
Multi-level selection theory examining how non-aggregative fitness interactions enable higher-order units as genuine evolutionary agents, emphasizing problem-solving over predetermined mechanisms.

Frameworks (1)

framework

Kin selection
contradicts

Related by similarity (8)

cosine ≥ 0.65 · no typed edge

Entities in the same semantic neighborhood but without a typed relation to this one — candidates for new edges or unrecognized duplicates.

Genetic homogeneity is neither necessary nor sufficient for organismic individuality; functional integration is more importantclaim0.818
Interpretive claim supported by experimental findings on planaria, chimeras, and cancer
But an inclusive fitness perspective suggests this is wrong-headed because they were never different individuals in the first place – they were always of one genotype, and the multicellular organism is just a phenotype of this singular evolutionary unit. Problem solved?quote0.768
Rhetorical quote showing the inadequacy of inclusive fitness for explaining ETIs
Organismic individuality can be separated from genetics: integration and collective action occur in non-neural systems.finding0.765
Empirical findings from developmental biology (Manicka & Levin, Lyon et al.) supporting mechanistic basis for individuality independent of genetic determination.
Genetic identity is insufficient to define biological individuality.claim0.762
Argues against purely genetic definitions of the self.
For a new level of individuality to have causal role as evolutionary unit, heritable fitness differences must be non-aggregative (not decomposable into lower-level differences).claim0.757
Core claim: monotonic non-linearities are insufficient; evolutionary outcomes must change depending on context.
How Do Multicellular Organisms Maintain Unified Selfmodels Despitequestion0.754
Artificial multicellular genetic chimeras can exhibit holistic behaviours and functions (Blackiston et al. 2021)finding0.751
Experimental demonstration that chimeric organisms can act as integrated individuals despite genetic differences
Biology's robustness, open-endedness, evolvability, and unique complexity likely depend on the fact that evolution works with an agential material.claim0.749
Central claim linking life's properties to the inherent competencies of its material substrate.