Future Darwinism- Group selection

There is a growing consensus among evolutionary biologists that the focus on the gene as the sole arbiter of the evolutionary process does not tell the whole story. In effect it leaves us blind to evolutionary processes at higher levels, particularly the role of the group as a major link in the evolutionary chain.

This traditional gene-centered paradigm is now being challenged.

Even at the basic biological level, genes rarely act alone. They operate in networks as groups of interacting genes, in which multiple genes affect each trait and each gene affects multiple traits. Such networks also have built-in redundancy, so that deleting any one gene has little impact on any animal’s form or function.

Overall therefore it is the genetic network that drives the selection process, not the individual gene.

One of the perplexing questions raised by evolutionary theory is how cooperative behaviour, came to exist. Organisms that cooperate should not last against freeloaders that don’t need to expend additional resources and therefore should die out.

There is a similar advantage for an ecologically diverse group of plants, offering more robust resistance against disease than monocultures. In fact whole species can also have traits that over time make them more likely to avoid extinction. This cannot be predicted from individual adaptations alone.

At the social level it is obvious that the cooperative strengths of groups will allow for better rates of survival. Co-operative behaviour is of advantage to all social groups for hunting, protection or food gathering, whether at the level of bacteria, insects or carnivores.

The altruism of sacrifice is also well documented, in the form of soldier ants defending their queen or human soldiers defending their families and nation. It is an evolutionary mechanism aimed at preserving group identity and proof that in the final analysis it is the continuation of the group or society that is vital, subsuming the individual's goals.

Social cohesiveness has also been an essential by-product of evolution. Human social groupings extend across a multiplicity of levels, including the biological family, extended family, friends, tribes, ethnic, professional and religious groups, communities and more recently groups based on common interests and commercial activities through the Internet.

The search for the full scope of the processes guiding evolution has been dramatically accelerated over the past decade, with a greater understanding of the multilayered controls of gene expression and direct feedback from the wider environment.

In the past biological processes and their components- genes, proteins and environmental factors, were analysed individually. Today they must be placed in a more holistic context. Regulatory genetic systems must be modelled and understood in their full complexity as dynamic flows of information, represented by mathematical models and computer simulations.

Game theory in biology also provides a holistic view of evolution and has be applied to conflict resolution, foraging, habitat selection and communication. It has also been applied to yeast genes as mentioned, bacteria, viruses, infectious agents and parasites, operating both in cooperation and conflict. A lack of cooperation in parasites for example can lead to maladapted levels of excessive virulence, harming both host and parasite

In this new paradigm, life arises as a self-organising process, without detailed blueprints, guided by patterns of interacting processes. Beyond the individual there is a new view of social groups as complex networks of self-organising systems, evolving group behaviour. Self-organisation in a social insect colony produces emergent properties such as multiple levels of social organisation, while dense networks of microbial colonies allow information to be distributed rapidly allowing them to respond efficiently and rapidly to environmental change.

Using all such tools drawn from network theory, game theory and artificial intelligence, we can expect to model increasingly complex biological systems in the future at all evolutionary levels- the single cell, composite organ, the whole individual and even populations of individuals.

It is worthwhile considering that increased knowledge of the interwoven genomes of humans and other species can help foster compassion for all life and reinforce the reality that all species are closely linked in a complex co-dependent web. This web of life must be carefully nurtured if we and our descendants are to survive on this small blue dot, in the vastness of the unknown universe.