"The problem of complex adaptations is studied in two largely disconnected research traditions: evolutionary biology and evolutionary computer science. … In evolutionary computer science it was found that the Darwinian process of mutation, recombination and selection is not universally effective in improving complex systems … For adaptation to occur, these systems must possess "evolvability", i.e. the ability of random variations to sometimes produce improvement. It was found that evolvability critically depends on the way genetic variation maps onto phenotypic variation, an issue known as the representation problem. … The genotype-phenotype map is the common theme underlying such varied biological phenomena as genetic canalization, developmental constraints, biological versatility, developmental dissociability, morphological integration, and many more. For evolutionary biology the representation problem has important implications: how is it that extant species acquired a genotype-phenotype map which allows improvement by mutation and selection? Is the genotype-phenotype map able to change in evolution? What are the selective forces, if any, that shape the genotype-phenotype map? " - G.P. Wagner [Adaptation&Evolvability] and L. Altenberg.
"Currently nobody know whether multiple activation and repression circuits represent a fine tuning system to determine and specify the precise position in the embryo where the target gene is active or repressed, whether the regulatory inputs are redundant, or whether some of the regulatory pathways represent just evolutionary relics which are not decisive any longer in embryo development " (See Jackle et al., 1992).
My attempt to answer the question is
Genotype-Phenotype Map and Complexification (Biological Experience)
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