Replication in an Entity vs. Replication of an Entity

[BillTre]

Complex biological entities (like cells) can replicate while things (like molecules or organelles) can replicate within their internal environment.

Here is a nice schematic picture of what is going on in these situations:

From the article:
Nobuto Takeuchi, Namiko Mitarai, Kunihiko Kaneko, A scaling law of multilevel evolution: how the balance between within- and among-collective evolution is determined, Genetics, Volume 220, Issue 2, February 2022, iyab182, https://doi.org/10.1093/genetics/iyab182

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Yes, that's true. Cells and other complex biological entities can replicate, while molecules and organelles can replicate within the internal environment of the cell. This schematic image is very helpful in understanding the process. It looks like the within-collective evolutionary processes help to balance out the among-collective evolutionary processes, which is an important part of maintaining a healthy ecosystem. Thanks for sharing!