Noble Denis
Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PT, UK
J Exp Biol. 2015 Jan 1;218(Pt 1):7-13. doi: 10.1242/jeb.106310.
Experimental results in epigenetics and related fields of biological research show that the Modern Synthesis (neo-Darwinist) theory of evolution requires either extension or replacement. This article examines the conceptual framework of neo-Darwinism, including the concepts of 'gene', 'selfish', 'code', 'program', 'blueprint', 'book of life', 'replicator' and 'vehicle'. This form of representation is a barrier to extending or replacing existing theory as it confuses conceptual and empirical matters. These need to be clearly distinguished. In the case of the central concept of 'gene', the definition has moved all the way from describing a necessary cause (defined in terms of the inheritable phenotype itself) to an empirically testable hypothesis (in terms of causation by DNA sequences). Neo-Darwinism also privileges 'genes' in causation, whereas in multi-way networks of interactions there can be no privileged cause. An alternative conceptual framework is proposed that avoids these problems, and which is more favourable to an integrated systems view of evolution.
表观遗传学及相关生物学研究领域的实验结果表明，现代综合理论（新达尔文主义）的进化理论需要扩展或替换。本文审视了新达尔文主义的概念框架，包括“基因”“自私的”“密码”“程序”“蓝图”“生命之书”“复制子”和“载体”等概念。这种表述形式阻碍了现有理论的扩展或替换，因为它混淆了概念问题和实证问题。这些问题需要明确区分。就核心概念“基因”而言，其定义已从描述一个必要原因（根据可遗传表型本身来定义）一路转变为一个可实证检验的假设（根据DNA序列的因果关系来定义）。新达尔文主义在因果关系中也赋予“基因”特权，而在多向交互网络中不存在特权原因。本文提出了一个替代概念框架，该框架避免了这些问题，且更有利于对进化形成综合的系统观点。
