Origins and demise of selfish gene theory.

Abstract

The idea of The Selfish Gene, first published in 1976, grew out of the Modern Synthesis of evolutionary biology formulated by Julian Huxley in 1942, and more specifically from George Williams' Adaptation and Natu - ral Selection in 1966. It presents a severely narrowed down version of Huxley's synthesis, which developed in the 1960s following the formulation of the Cen tral Dogma of molecular biology by Francis Crick. The idea rests on three assumptions: the isolation of the genome from any influences by the soma and its development in interaction with the environment (the Weis - mann Barrier), one-way causation from DNA to proteins (The Central Dogma), and the autoreplication of DNA (Schrödinger's aperiodic crystal). All three of these assumptions have now been shown to be incorrect. The 'replicator' (DNA) is not independent of the 'vehicle', the organism itself, so that The Selfish Gene can no longer be regarded as a valid scientific hypothesis.