caa a22 4500 465802974 CHVBK 20180323112057.0 cr unu---uuuuu 170327e19900701xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/BF00165256 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/BF00165256 Falk Raphael Department of Genetics, The Hebrew University, 91904, Jerusalem, Israel aut Between beanbag genetics and natural selection [Elektronische Daten] [Raphael Falk] The encounter between the Darwinian theory of evolution and Mendelism could be resolved only when reductionist tools could be applied to the analysis of complex systems. The instrumental reductionist interpretation of the hereditary basis of continuously varying traits provided mathematical tools which eventually allowed the construction of the ‘Modern Synthesis' of the theory of evolution. When genotypic as well as environmental variance allow the isolation of parts of the system, it is possible to apply Mendelian reductionism, that is , to treat the phenotypic trait as if ti causally determined by discrete "genes for” the trait. howeverm such a "beanbag genetics” approach obscures the system's eye-view. The concept of heritability, defined as the proportion of the total phenotypic variance due to (additive) hereditary variation, asserts that genetic elements have discrete effects; but by relating to the genotypic variance, it avoids the trap of reffering to "genes for” characters. Variation in relative reproductive success is the phenotypic "trait” of significance for Darwinian evolution, and fitness is its genotypic component. Most traits that contribute to reproductive success are due to the effects of many loci that causally contribute to the adaptive value of those traits. by establishing a causal relationship between the heritability of traits and reproductive success the apparent tautology of the definition of fitness through reproductive success is avoided, without the need to turn to simplistic and misleading concepts, such as the "genes for” the traits. Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1990 Adaptive value nationallicence fitness nationallicence genes for nationallicence heritability nationallicence instrumental reductionism nationallicence quantitive genetics nationallicence Biology and Philosophy Kluwer Academic Publishers 5/3(1990-07-01), 313-325 0169-3867 5:3<313 1990 5 10539 https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00165256 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00165256 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 100 1- Falk Raphael Department of Genetics, The Hebrew University, 91904, Jerusalem, Israel aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Biology and Philosophy Kluwer Academic Publishers 5/3(1990-07-01), 313-325 0169-3867 5:3<313 1990 5 10539 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer