Genes in Conflict. The Biology of Selfish Genetic Elements
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Author(s): A. Burt and R. Trivers
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674017137
Format: hardback
602pp
Price: £21.95, $35.00, €29.80
Review Date: 20 February 2006
Review: Here the authors cover all elements of selfish genetic elements (those stretches of DNA that spread in spite of being injurious to the individual that they occupy). The aim was to include all types of selfish elements in all species (except bacteria and viruses) and to organize the examples logically according to which natural selection acts on the selfish elements and, in turn, on the larger genomes that they inhabit. There are chapters on: selfish gene elements; autosomal killers; selfish sex chromosomes; selfish mitochondrial DNA; gene conversion and homing; transposable elements; female drive; chromosomes; genomic exclusion; selfish gene lineages; and a summary and look to the future.