Abstract
Background: With the launch of the new online journal ChromoSomics, the research community is invited to refocus on system-level inheritance rather than gene-defined, part-level inheritance. While existing discussions of chromosomics have addressed the technological gap between DNA and chromosomes, they have remained within the conceptual framework of classical genetics. Results: This piece argues that genome- or chromosome-set-based information management is key to the future of genomics and evolution. Life is defined by how it processes information; however, molecular biology has mainly focused on transmission and use, ignoring information self-creation and preservation. Although traditional cytogenetics does focus on the higher-level system, no corresponding theory has accompanied it. Two established concepts provide the necessary foundation: genome chaos creates new system-level information, and inheritance serves as the basis for information preservation. Therefore, two types of inheritance define genomics. Genes code for parts, or proteins, while the karyotype codes for systems, or species. The karyotype organizes the gene network and serves as the platform on which other organic codes are inherited. Conclusion: Together, genomic and non-genomic inheritance are fuzzy, which explains why small variations come and go within species boundaries. Speciation and population expansion follow a two-phase evolutionary process: karyotype change mediates macroevolution, and gene mutation mediates microevolution. This reframes disease as a failure of system-level information and cancer as a supersystem that constitutes a new biological entity.

Key words: Cancer as supersystem; Fuzzy inheritance; Genome architecture theory; Information self-creation and preservation; Karyotype coding; System level inheritance; Two phased evolution