title: The integration of the earliest genetic information.
abstract: New levels of evolutionary units have emerged a number of times. One major pathway of emergence is the integration of information dispersed in originally competitive lower-level units. Such a transition is thought to have occurred during the origin of life, leading from RNA replicators to protocells. Recent alternative ideas, and some of their connections with population biology, are reviewed.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Szathmáry