Do We Understand Heredity and Evolution? No

Genetics has been the cornerstone for understanding life for over a century, how it reproduces and evolves, and how human health is sustained. Johannsen’s 1911 genotype conception, that ‘genes are the units of heredity,’ replaced the phenotype conception upon which Galton’s successful 1897 law of ancestral heredity was based[1]. However, the case is far from being closed. In 1992, radiation-induced genomic instability and the bystander effect challenged the genotype conception[2]. Further, in 2009, genetic variance could not explain the fitness trajectory of the _E. coli_ bacteria in the Long-Term Evolution Experiment (LTEE)[3]. In 2013, it was clear that evolution in the LTEE was thermodynamically, not genetically, driven[4]. This paper briefly outlines the history of heredity from 1880 and Mendelism from 1900 and reviews recent empirical evidence that fundamentally challenges those two domains. Although in the past century genetics has moved on to encompass such disciplines as epigenetic inheritance, genetic regulatory networks, system biology, etc., 20th century gene-centric concepts of heredity remain foundational.