Genetic Addiction: a Principle of Gene Symbiosis in a Genome

TL;DRAbstract

Observations suggest that the genome is a community of genes that essentially act selfishly and potentially do not have the overall order of the genome as their primary interest. Postsegregational host killing maintains the existence of a genetic element by death. This chapter extracts general rules whereby death is used to govern genomes. It reviews the development of the concept of genetic addiction, and introduces several types of addiction systems. The chapter examines where the addiction modules are located in genomes and how they get there, and discusses their mechanisms of action and their gene expression regulation, which include contributions from structural studies. It sketches various kinds of interactions that take place between addiction systems within a genome and then addresses the central paradox: why a genetic element that is potentially toxic to the genome is ever maintained. The chapter then reviews the evidence that suggests that some forms of genetic addiction have

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