Abstract
Fields such as behavioural and evolutionary ecology are built on the assumption that natural selection leads to organisms that behave as if they are trying to maximise their fitness. However, there is considerable evidence for selfish genetic elements that change the behaviour of individuals to increase their own transmission. How can we reconcile this contradiction? Here we show that: (1) when selfish genetic elements have a greater impact at the individual level, they are more likely to be suppressed, and suppression spreads more quickly; (2) selection on selfish genetic elements leads them towards a greater impact at the individual level, making them more likely to be suppressed; (3) the majority interest within the genome generally prevails over ‘cabals’ of a few genes, irrespective of genome size, mutation rate and the sophistication of trait distorters. Overall, our results suggest that even when there is the potential for considerable genetic conflict, this will often have negligible impact at the individual level.
Highlights
Fields such as behavioural and evolutionary ecology are built on the assumption that natural selection leads to organisms that behave as if they are trying to maximise their fitness
We find that: (i) the greater the level of trait distortion caused by a selfish genetic element, the more likely and the quicker it is suppressed; (ii) selection on selfish genetic elements leads towards greater trait distortion, making them more likely to be suppressed; (iii) in genome-wide arms races to gain control of organism traits, the majority interest within the genome generally prevails over ‘cabals of a few’, regardless of genome size, mutation rate, and the strength and sophistication of trait distorters
Selection on trait distorters favours the evolution of higher levels of trait distortion, which will favour their suppression
Summary
Fields such as behavioural and evolutionary ecology are built on the assumption that natural selection leads to organisms that behave as if they are trying to maximise their fitness. There is considerable evidence for selfish genetic elements, which increase their own contribution to future generations at the expense of other genes in the same organism[13,14,15,16,17] These selfish genetic elements may distort traits away from the values that would maximise individual fitness, to increase their own transmission[14,18,19,20,21,22]. Evidence for such genetic conflict has been found across the tree of life, from simple prokaryotes to complex animals. How important is this problem of polymorphism likely to be?
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