The ecologies of hereditary information

This paper provides a summary review of some important ideas about hereditary information based on the integrative theme of ecological interaction. We begin with a consideration of an informational perspective on gene and genome that leads on to the contemporary view of a fluid genome. This in turn leads to a reflection on ‘natural genetic engineering’ and in particular some of the proposals made by Shapiro (e.g., 1992). The ideas of fluid genome and natural genetic engineering presuppose a complex self-adjusting information processing system. Underlying the interactional process is the exchange of information and this is considered in light of the relationship between measuring apparatus and object. A proposal by Harre (1988) on complementarity is adapted to discuss the multiple codes of DNA. Two standpoints on hereditary information are then considered, the macroscopic ecosystem scale and the mesoscopic scale of the eukaryotic nucleus.