Evolvability

This article explains evolvability in evolutionary biology. For the use of the term in software engineering see Evolvierbarkeit (software) .

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Evolvability ( English evolvability ) is a term of evolutionary biology . It describes the ability of living beings to change their characteristics by changing their genes .

The term evolvability is used in both a technical and a functional sense. In the technical sense, a biological system shows evolvability if its properties show hereditary genetic variation , so that selection can bring about a change in these properties. In the functional sense, a biological system can evolve if it can acquire novel properties through genetic modification that potentially enable it to increase its ability to survive and reproduce .

Evolvability is a qualitative system property . A distinction must be made between this and the statistical concept of the variability of the genotype and phenotype, which describes the variance of the probability distribution of a random variable (e.g. DNA ).

The evolvability of a system can be examined independently of the framework conditions or the system's environment. This differs from the adaptability or adaptability of a system, which can only ever be examined in relation to a describable changed environmental condition.

See also

• Exaptation

literature

• A. Wagner: Robustness and Evolvability in Living Systems. (= Princeton Studies in Complexity ). Princeton University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-691-12240-7 .