Burt, Austin

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Burt, Austin

PERSONAL:

Education: McGill University, Ph.D., 1990.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine, Department of Biology, University of London, Silwood Park, London, England. E-mail—a.burt@imperial.ac.uk.

CAREER:

Writer, biologist, geneticist, researcher, and educator. University of California, Santa Cruz, researcher, 1990-92; University of California, Berkeley, Taylor Lab, staff member, 1993-95; University of London, Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine, London, England, professor of evolutionary genetics, 1995—.

WRITINGS:

(With Robert Trivers) Genes in Conflict: The Biology of Selfish Genetic Elements, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

A biologist and geneticist at the University of London's Imperial College, Austin Burt researches and writes about genetic engineering and the nature of selfish genetic elements. Whereas most genetic characteristics are passed on to succeeding generations because they enhance the host organism's ability to survive and reproduce, selfish genes are biological renegades that work to replicate themselves at the expense of the host organism's biological strength, often with potentially harmful effects to the main organism and its descendants. In Genes in Conflict: The Biology of Selfish Genetic Elements, Burt and coauthor Robert Trivers explore the complex biological underpinnings of selfish genetics, what the subject means to evolution, and what influence their continued presence might have on future generations of both human and animal populations.

Burt and Trivers note that humans host significant amounts of parasitic DNA within their genome—genetic material that does not benefit the individual but which hijacks biological resources to replicate itself and pass itself on into new cells. One form of this material, transposons, "makes up about fifty percent of our genome," noted reviewer Fred Gould in the American Scientist. Throughout their book, Burt and Trivers apply their knowledge and skill to addressing the question of why humans and other animals serve as unknowing hosts to genes that provide no benefit or advantage. In the hidden world of genetics, the authors identify and examine multiple genetic, molecular, behavioral, and evolutionary elements of selfish genes and their sometimes harmful effects. In addition to a thorough overview of the current knowledge about selfish genetics, Burt and Trivers also make it clear that there remains a great deal to learn about this pernicious and sometimes inexplicable area of genetics and biodiversity. Gould called Genes in Conflict "very engaging. It is full of details that have been woven together into a very readable, well-organized package. Of importance for the nonspecialist reader, Burt and Trivers succeed in conveying complex concepts in population genetics without using mathematical equations."