Abstrakt
This review paper discusses the perspective of complex biological systems asappliedtoinheritanceandontogeny,focusingonthecontinuityofgenetic,epigenetic (transgenerational) and microbiotic inheritance. The informational processuality within this continuity can be used as to exemplify the insufficiency of hierarchical concepts in grasping the complex and integrated nature of biological processes.
The argument follows Bruni and Giorgi (Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology 119, 481- 92, 2015) in emphasizing that while structures and substrates are organized hierarchically, communicational processes are organized heterarchically. The essay also argues the insufficiency of a single, basic, i.e. genetic level of description, which is the prevalent idea of twentieth century biology, to explain all phenotypic variation.
I argue that inheritance and development cannot be fully explained by some sub- or superordination and that such descriptions are merely heuristic tools that do not reflect the nature of such processes.