The unity that does not exist – a review of A. Burt & R. Trivers 2006: Genes in Conflict

Organisms harbour several genetic elements with the potential to act selfishly, and thus undermine the fitness of the organism as a whole. In their book ‘Genes in conflict’, Austin Burt and Robert Trivers thoroughly review evolution and molecular biology of such selfish genetics elements, and set them in a kin selection framework. In this review I set their views in a larger multi‐level selection framework, and consider potential problems in the study of selfish genetics elements.