HEREDITY BEYOND THE SELFISH GENE: THE INCLUSIVE EVOLUTIONARY SYNTHESIS

Étienne Danchin

(Actes Sud, 384 pages, 2022)

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It is a fact of life that children resemble their parents in many ways. The prevailing view is that heredity results mainly, if not exclusively, from the transfer of genes from parent to offspring. But is this really the case? What exactly are genes? Why is this parent-offspring resemblance so important? And how might the answer to these questions differ in our everyday lives?

For the last twenty years, an increasing number of scientists from various disciplines in the field of biology have shown that the passage of information between generations cannot solely be reduced to genetics. They have been calling for an update of the modern synthesis of evolution—the canonical vision of evolution—which arose in the mid-twentieth century when genetics and Darwinian evolution came together. But how to do so?

This is what Étienne Danchin endeavors to accomplish in this scholarly and transdisciplinary book. In order to synthesize all the recent discoveries across biology (development, genetics, epigenetics, physiology, molecular, cell and medical sciences, as well as ecology and evolution), he introduces a general framework called the Inclusive Evolutionary Synthesis. The author focuses on heredity and mechanisms of transmitted resemblance (i.e., inheritance) as a major concept allowing evolutionary and functional biology to merge.

In the wake of Richard Dawkins’ famous The Selfish Gene, Danchin offers a lively, accessible, yet detailed panorama of the development of the theory of evolution, from its inception in the nineteenth century (Lamarck, Darwin) to the latest advances in the field. He presents surprising, detailed examples of nongenetic transmission that disprove the notion of absolute genetic determination and open up fresh possibilities in the areas of health and nature conservation.

Danchin’s ambition in this book is not only to speak to scientists, teachers of evolution, and students of biology, but also to reach a broader public of enthusiastic readers eager to understand life.

Étienne Danchin, emeritus research director at the CNRS, specializes in the social behavior of sea birds. He is an internationally recognized expert on the theories of evolution and nongenetic inheritance, specifically on cultural and epigenetic inheritance. He coedited Behavioural Ecology: An Evolutionary Perspective on Behaviour was published by Oxford University Press in 2008.