8 ms·

The gene is the unit of selection.

• folli 8y ago
  The current fashion is subgenes (domains): https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3258039/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3258039/
• phkahler 8y ago
  No, the collection of genes is. There are exactly zero individual genes roaming around replicating in isolation.
  • marcosdumay 8y ago
    Sexual reproduction uncorrelates the selective pressures over each gene, and each small set of them (with larger sets being possible the larger a population the species has). The gene is the unit of selection is perfectly right. It's missing a finer point in that groups of genes are unities of selection too, but it's correct.
  • lisper 8y ago
    This is a common misconception. The collection is the unit of replication, but the gene is nonetheless the unit of selection. This argument was laid out in excruciating detail by Dawkins, but the TL;DR is that reproductive fitness can only ever be measured relative to some environment, and all the other genes in a replicative unit are (part of) the environment for a gene and its alleles.
    • phkahler 8y ago
      Collection, chromosome, Gene, base pair. Selection happens at all these levels.
      • lisper 8y ago
        Nope. Selection can only happen at the level of something that has an effect on the phenotype. That's the definition of a gene.
  • rjbwork 8y ago
    Not according to modern understandings of gene theory. The Selfish Gene by Dawkins is perhaps the seminal work on this topic for the popular audience.
• danharaj 8y ago
  Actually, it's chemical enviromments.
  • folli 8y ago
    How does a chemical environment replicate and mutate?