Scientific explanation can proceed through different but potentially complementary explanatory strategies.
Analysis investigates a system through its components, activities, interactions, and causal organisation.
Synthesis investigates how components, activities, and relations participate in the organisation of a wider system.
Analytical approaches provide powerful biological explanations and may be sufficient for appropriately specified explananda. Synthesis does not automatically complete or supersede them. It becomes relevant where the explanandum concerns organisational relations, dependencies, or contributions that are not already captured by the analytical account.
APS therefore does not require biological explanations to combine analysis and synthesis. It asks whether an organisational account identifies explanatory relations that matter to the specified explanandum and whether those relations add to what the relevant comparator already explains.
Where synthesis is relevant, components can be investigated in relation to the materially implemented organisation within which they operate. This may include relations extending across different spatial and temporal extents, without treating those extents as hierarchical causal levels.