The outline should include the overall structure of the essay (e.g., introduction, thesis, antithesis, synthesis, conclusion) AND a collection of the ideas that you plan to cover in the different parts.
What are the units of natural selection?
Genes, Organisms, Communities - One interesting angle might be to push this to the extremes: individual nucleotides can hardly be considered units of selection, nor the can the biosphere as a whole be considered as possible units of selection, at least is selection is defined as survival of the fittest (see Inkpen and Doolittle's papers on the "Its the song not the singer" seletion here and here).
Can the genome be considered as an ecosystem?
Our genome consists to a large (or very large) part out of former selfish genetic elements that propagated and some still propagate in our genome. What, if any. is missed in this gene centered view of the genome?
Can ecological concepts be applied to relations between genes?
Symbiosis (= mutualism, parasitism, or commensalism) are usually applied to relations between organisms. However, molecular parasites, selfish genetic elements, and even protein domains can have (or "might have" or "always have") relationships to one another that might be described using the same terminology.
Trash to treasure - treasure to trash
Discuss one or more examples of selfish genetic elements and molecular parasites (more vermin than trash) that over time evolved to make positive contributions to the host's fitness (possible are inteins, introns, nonsense-mediated mRNA decay pathway, hedgehog proteins).
Include a brief discussion whether or not this contribution initially qualifies as a nearly neutral pathway towards higher complexity.
Items to think about:
Suggested reading:
