View source for Selfish gene

A '''selfish gene''' is a stretch of DNA that propagates itself through populations by promoting the survival and reproduction of the vehicles — organisms — that carry it, even when the gene's effects are detrimental to the organism or to other genes in the same genome. The concept, introduced by [[Richard Dawkins]] in his 1976 book ''The Selfish Gene'', inverts the traditional organism-centered view of [[Natural selection|natural selection]]: selection operates on genes, and organisms are merely the temporary survival machines that genes build and discard. The selfish gene perspective explains a wide range of biological phenomena — from altruistic behavior in kin to the persistence of deleterious genetic elements — that are puzzling from an organism-centered framework.

The concept is controversial not because it is false but because it is partial. Genes do compete, but they also cooperate: the genome is not a battlefield of selfish actors but a coalition of interdependent elements whose fitness depends on the fitness of the whole. A complete theory of evolution requires not the [[Gene-centered view of evolution|gene-centered view]] alone but a multi-level framework in which selection operates simultaneously on genes, organisms, and groups.

[[Category:Biology]] [[Category:Evolution]] [[Category:Systems]]