How selfish is DNA?

@article{Cavaliersmith1980HowSI,
  title={How selfish is DNA?},
  author={T Cavalier-smith},
  journal={Nature},
  year={1980},
  volume={285},
  pages={617-618}
}
In the 17 April issue, Doolittle and Sapienza and Orgel and Crick separately used the term ‘Selfish DNA’ to describe certain DNA sequences in eukaryotic organisms. They argued that the process of DNA replication allows the accumulation within the replicating genome of DNA sequences which have no functional (phenotypic) significance but whose presence stimulates the further accumulation of sequences of the same kind. This ‘selfish’ DNA is supposed, in particular, to account for some of the… 
View on Nature
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
72 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
1
Background Citations
18
Methods Citations
1
Results Citations
1

72 Citations

Citation Type

Citation Type

Population genetics of selfish DNA
TLDR
It is found that whereas the mean number of clustered and dispersed units of selfish DNA in a population remains constant, the distribution becomes increasingly dispersed with time.
Genomes of eukaryotes, bacteria and viruses: chromosome organization
TLDR
The function of DNA is to carry the genetic message from generation to generation, and to allow the expression of that message under appropriate conditions, and the structures involved in these processes are called chromosomes.
Selfish DNA: a sexually-transmitted nuclear parasite.
A quantitative population genetics model for the evolution of transposable genetic elements is developed. This model shows that "selfish" DNA sequences do not have to be selectively neutral at the…
Chromosomal DNA Sequences and Their Organization
TLDR
The large amounts of DNA in plants and the extensive Variation in DNA content between species pose many problems of a technical as well as an intellectual nature for research on chromosomal DNA sequences.
Selfish genetic elements
TLDR
Though long dismissed as genetic curiosities, with little relevance for evolution, they are now recognized to affect a wide swath of biological processes, ranging from genome size and architecture to speciation.
Coincidence, coevolution, or causation? DNA content, cellsize, and the C‐value enigma
  • T. Gregory
  • Biology
    Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society
  • 2001
TLDR
A detailed review of the debate surrounding the C‐value enigma, the various theories proposed to explain it, and the evidence in favour of a causal connection between DNA content and cell size is provided.
The Croonian Lecture, 1981 - Lampbrush chromosomes
  • H. G. Callan
  • Biology
    Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B. Biological Sciences
  • 1982
TLDR
Despite attempts to determine the sequence organization of those portions of the DNA that are transcribed by lampbrush chromosomes, the function of these transcripts remains an open question, and the C-value paradox is still unresolved.
Molecules and Macroevolution: A Gouldian View of the Genome
TLDR
The hierarchical conception of macroevolution espoused by Gould is brought to bear on phenomena including the evolution of transposable elements within genomes and the effects of total genome size on higher level properties including at the cellular, organismal, and ecological scales.
The modulation of DNA content: proximate causes and ultimate consequences.
TLDR
There is increasing evidence for the primacy of selection in molding genome sizes via impacts on cell size and division rates and processes inducing quantum or doubling series variation in gametic or somatic genome sizes are common.
Evolutionary computation and the c-value paradox
TLDR
The new explanation is that there is a selective bias in preference of genetic events which increase DNA material over those which decrease it, and one possible concrete mechanism by which this may occur: deleting strands of DNA is more likely to damage genomic material than migrating or copying strands.
...
1
2
3
4
5
...

References

SHOWING 1-10 OF 13 REFERENCES
Selfish DNA: the ultimate parasite
The DNA of higher organisms usually falls into two classes, one specific and the other comparatively nonspecific. It seems plausible that most of the latter originated by the spreading of sequences…
Ubiquitous, interspersed repeated sequences in mammalian genomes.
TLDR
It is demonstrated that a portion of this highly conserved segment of repetitive mamalian DNA sequence is similar to a sequence found within a low molecular weight RNA that hydrogen-bonds to poly(A)-terminated RNA molecules of Chinese hamsters and a sequence that forms half of a perfect inverted repeat near the origin of DNA replication in papovaviruses.
Nuclear volume control by nucleoskeletal DNA, selection for cell volume and cell growth rate, and the solution of the DNA C-value paradox.
TLDR
Eukaryote DNA can be divided into genic DNA, which codes for proteins (or serves as recognition sites for proteins involved in transcription, replication and recombination), and nucleoskeletal DNA (S-DNA), which exists only because of its nucleoskeleton role in determining the nuclear volume.
r- and K-tactics in the evolution of protist developmental systems: cell and genome size, phenotype diversifying selection, and cell cycle patterns.
Partial nucleotide sequence of the 300-nucleotide interspersed repeated human DNA sequences
TLDR
A base sequence is determined by directly determining the base sequence of a part of the Alu family and this base sequence shows that individual members of theAlu family share a common ancestral nucleotide sequence.
遺伝子の分子生物学 = Molecular biology of the gene
Selfish genes, the phenotype paradigm and genome evolution
Natural selection operating within genomes will inevitably result in the appearance of DNAs with no phenotypic expression whose only ‘function’ is survival within genomes. Prokaryotic transposable…
Principles of Genetics
TLDR
This chapter discusses Mendelism, the basic principles of Inheritance, and the Genetics of Bacteria and their Viruses, as well as Population Genetics and Evolutionary Genetics.
Nuclear DNA content and minimum generation time in herbaceous plants
  • M. Bennett
  • Biology
    Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B. Biological Sciences
  • 1972
TLDR
It is shown that the mean cell cycle time and the mean meiotic duration in annual species is significantly shorter than in perennial species, and that satellite DNA is significant in its nucleotypic effects on developmental processes.
Visualising jumping genes
...
1
2
...