Modularity

Modularity is a concept introduced by Mary Jane West-Eberhard[1]. She correctly sensed patterns in evolution. All her patterns however stick to the old concept of morphological presentations. This point is overcome by fauceir theory that admits functional patterns. In this sense her concept of modularity is superseded by fauceir theory now. The modularity of functional units remains, however. We will use the term modularity not as a concept of evolution, but to illustrate how the fauceir concept is arranged.

1. Mary Jane West-Eberhard, Developmental Plasticity and Evolution, 1. Aufl. (Oxford University Press, USA, 2003).

Phenotype

The phenotype in its classical sense is the the sum of all characters that a biological organism has. It does not matter whether these characters derive from inherited or acquired information.

In a more general, fauceir sense, the phenotype of a given fauceir can only be assessed by an other fauceir, a sensor. The phenotype is the sum of all fauceirs of a given fauceir a sensor can interact with.

Phenotypic Plasticity

By phenotypic plasticity we understand the range of variation a phenotype can asume at a given genotype. Phenotypic plasticity embraces phenotypic changes that are influenced by environmental factors not by inherited genomic factors.

The concept of phenotypic plasticity acknowledges other control mechanisms involved in the development of a specific phenotype. All these intertwined control mechanisms are fauceir of different specificity.