TY - JOUR T1 - Adaptation and the Parliament of Genes JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/526970 SP - 526970 AU - Thomas W. Scott AU - Stuart A. West Y1 - 2019/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/03/13/526970.abstract N2 - 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 these contradictions? We found theoretically that, when selfish genetic elements have a greater impact at the individual level, they are more likely to be suppressed, and suppression spreads more quickly. Consequently, selfish genetic elements will either have a minor impact at the individual level, or tend to be suppressed. In addition, we found that selection on selfish genetic elements favours higher levels of distortion. Consequently, selfish genetic elements will tend to evolve to make themselves more likely to be suppressed. 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. ER -