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Learning to get along despite struggling to get by

Elizabeth A Ostrowski1* and Gad Shaulsky2

Author Affiliations

1 Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005, USA

2 Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA

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Genome Biology 2009, 10:218 doi:10.1186/gb-2009-10-5-218

Published: 26 May 2009

Abstract

How cooperation can evolve by natural selection is important for understanding the evolutionary transition from unicellular to multicellular life. Here we review the evolutionary theories for cooperation, with emphasis on the mechanisms that can favor cooperation and reduce conflict in multicellular organisms.