Genes in Conflict: The Biology of Selfish Genetic Elements
In evolution, most genes survive and spread within populations because they increase the ability of their hosts (or their close relatives) to survive and reproduce. But some genes spread in spite of being harmful to the host organism—by distorting their own transmission to the next generation, or by changing how the host behaves toward relatives. As a consequence, different genes in a single organism can have diametrically opposed interests and adaptations. Covering all species from yeast to humans, Genes in Conflict is the first book to tell the story of selfish genetic elements, those continually appearing stretches of DNA that act narrowly to advance their own replication at the expense of the larger organism. As Austin Burt and Robert Trivers show, these selfish genes are a universal feature of life with pervasive effects, including numerous counter-adaptations. Their spread has created a whole world of socio-genetic interactions within individuals, usually completely hidden from sight. Genes in Conflict introduces the subject of selfish genetic elements in all its aspects, from molecular and genetic to behavioral and evolutionary. Burt and Trivers give us access for the first time to a crucial area of research—now developing at an explosive rate—that is cohering as a unitary whole, with its own logic and interconnected questions, a subject certain to be of enduring importance to our understanding of genetics and evolution.
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Genes in Conflict: The Biology of Selfish Genetic Elements
In evolution, most genes survive and spread within populations because they increase the ability of their hosts (or their close relatives) to survive and reproduce. But some genes spread in spite of being harmful to the host organism—by distorting their own transmission to the next generation, or by changing how the host behaves toward relatives. As a consequence, different genes in a single organism can have diametrically opposed interests and adaptations. Covering all species from yeast to humans, Genes in Conflict is the first book to tell the story of selfish genetic elements, those continually appearing stretches of DNA that act narrowly to advance their own replication at the expense of the larger organism. As Austin Burt and Robert Trivers show, these selfish genes are a universal feature of life with pervasive effects, including numerous counter-adaptations. Their spread has created a whole world of socio-genetic interactions within individuals, usually completely hidden from sight. Genes in Conflict introduces the subject of selfish genetic elements in all its aspects, from molecular and genetic to behavioral and evolutionary. Burt and Trivers give us access for the first time to a crucial area of research—now developing at an explosive rate—that is cohering as a unitary whole, with its own logic and interconnected questions, a subject certain to be of enduring importance to our understanding of genetics and evolution.
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Genes in Conflict: The Biology of Selfish Genetic Elements
In evolution, most genes survive and spread within populations because they increase the ability of their hosts (or their close relatives) to survive and reproduce. But some genes spread in spite of being harmful to the host organism—by distorting their own transmission to the next generation, or by changing how the host behaves toward relatives. As a consequence, different genes in a single organism can have diametrically opposed interests and adaptations. Covering all species from yeast to humans, Genes in Conflict is the first book to tell the story of selfish genetic elements, those continually appearing stretches of DNA that act narrowly to advance their own replication at the expense of the larger organism. As Austin Burt and Robert Trivers show, these selfish genes are a universal feature of life with pervasive effects, including numerous counter-adaptations. Their spread has created a whole world of socio-genetic interactions within individuals, usually completely hidden from sight. Genes in Conflict introduces the subject of selfish genetic elements in all its aspects, from molecular and genetic to behavioral and evolutionary. Burt and Trivers give us access for the first time to a crucial area of research—now developing at an explosive rate—that is cohering as a unitary whole, with its own logic and interconnected questions, a subject certain to be of enduring importance to our understanding of genetics and evolution.
Austin Burt is Professor of Evolutionary Genetics, Imperial College London.
Robert Trivers is Professor of Anthropology and Biological Sciences, Rutgers University. Professor Trivers has been named 2007 winner of the Crafoord Prize in Biosciences.
Table of Contents
Preface
1. Selfish Genetic Elements
Genetic Cooperation and Conflict
Three Ways to Achieve “Drive”
Within-Individual Kinship Conflicts
Rates of Spread
Effects on the Host Population
The Study of Selfish Genetic Elements
Design of This Book
2. Autosomal Killers
The t Haplotype
Discovery
Structure of the t Haplotype
History and Distribution
Genetics of Drive
Importance of Mating System and Gamete Competition
Fate of Resistant Alleles
Selection for Inversions
Recessive Lethals in t Complexes
Enhancers and Suppressors
t and the Major Histocompatability Complex
Heterozygous (+/t) Fitness Effects: Sex Antagonistic?
Accounting for t Frequencies in Nature
Other Gamete Killers
Segregation Distorter in Drosophila
Spore Killers in Fungi
Incidence of Gamete Killers
Maternal-Effect Killers
Medea in Flour Beetles
HSR, scat+, and OmDDK in Mice
The Evolution of Maternal-Effect Killers
Gestational Drive?
Gametophyte Factors in Plants
3. Selfish Sex Chromosomes
Sex Chromosome Drive in the Diptera
Killer X Chromosomes
Killer Y Chromosomes
Taxonomic Distribution of Killer Sex Chromosomes
Evolutionary Cycles of Sex Determination
Feminizing X (and Y) Chromosomes in Rodents
The Varying Lemming
The Wood Lemming
Other Murids
Other Conflicts: Sex Ratios and Mate Choice
4. Genomic Imprinting
Imprinting and Parental Investment in Mammals
Igf2 and Igf2r: Oppositely Imprinted, Oppositely Acting Growth Factors in Mice
Growth Effects of Imprinted Genes in Mice and Humans
Evolution of the Imprinting Apparatus
The Mechanisms of Imprinting Involve Methylation and Are Complex
Conflict between Different Components of the Imprinting Machinery
History of Conflict Reflected in the Imprinting Apparatus
Evolutionary Turnover of the Imprinting Apparatus
Intralocus Interactions, Polar Overdominance, and Paramutation
Transmission Ratio Distortion at Imprinted Loci
Biparental Imprinting and Other Possibilities
Other Traits: Social Interactions after the Period of Parental Investment
Maternal Behavior in Mice
Inbreeding and Dispersal
Kin Recognition
Functional Interpretation of Tissue Effects in Chimeric Mice
Deceit and Selves-Deception
Imprinting and the Sex Chromosomes
Genomic Imprinting in Other Taxa
Flowering Plants
Other Taxa Predicted To Have Imprinting
5. Selfish Mitochondrial DNA
Mitochondrial Genomics: A Primer
Mitochondrial Selection within the Individual
“Petite” Mutations in Yeast
Within-Individual Selection and the Evolution of Uniparental Inheritance
Within-Individual Selection under Uniparental Inheritance
DUI: Mother-to-Daughter and Father-to-Son mtDNA Inheritance in Mussels
Genes in Conflict is a well-written and beautifully organized synthesis that forges a link between evolutionary and molecular biology. It should be read by evolutionary biologists wishing to learn more about the menagerie of selfish genetic elements and by molecular biologists wishing to gain some evolutionary insights into their particular systems.
David Haig
Genes in Conflict is a well-written and beautifully organized synthesis that forges a link between evolutionary and molecular biology. It should be read by evolutionary biologists wishing to learn more about the menagerie of selfish genetic elements and by molecular biologists wishing to gain some evolutionary insights into their particular systems. --(David Haig)
Bill Rice
Most of us have met at least one person who stands out as the epitome of logical thinking, someone you can trust to see the flaws in any erroneous conclusion and resolve the needle of signal in a haystack of seemly discordant data. Austin Burt is that person for me, and his new book on genetic conflict reflects this intellectual prowess. --(Bill Rice)
Steven Pinker
Robert Trivers is an under-appreciated genius, and one of history's greatest thinkers in the analysis of behavior and emotion. --(Steven Pinker, Johnstone Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and author of The Blank Slate and How the Mind Works.)
