
Mysterious DNA Found to Survive Eons of Evolution - nickb
http://www.livescience.com/health/081009-mystery-dna.html
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delackner
My reading of Dawkins' Selfish Gene suggests another angle that is not even
mentioned in the article. Genes do not have any concept of our reproductive
success. They are just structures that are copied. A gene whose structure is
very resistant to mutation and is very easily copied has an advantage against
other genes -- even ones that provide a fitness advantage to the organism.

Imagine you have 100 organisms sharing the same basic DNA, with one gene
positively boosting reproductive fitness, that is easily mutated. They also
all share another gene that confers no expressed behavior at all, but is very
resistent to mutation. Over time most descendants will still be likely to
carry the useless gene, yet the version of the beneficial gene they carry will
drift and in time cease to be recognizable as the original gene at all.

I read the book several years ago, so please feel free to tear the example
apart (and hopefully replace it with something more accurate!).

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albertcardona
The article at livescience.com is rather lame -- but the REAL article, which
is not linked anywhere, is very interesting and freely available (Go Genome
Biology!):

Abstract:

<http://genome.cshlp.org/cgi/content/abstract/gr.080184.108v1>

Full article in PDF:

<http://genome.cshlp.org/cgi/reprint/gr.080184.108v1.pdf>

