The crucial point, with respect to the defi- nition of the gene, is that genes are not autonomous, indepen- dent agents—as was implicit in much of the early treatment of genes, and which indeed remains potent in much contempo- rary thinking, as exemplified in R. Dawkins’still influential book, “The Selfish Gene”(Dawkins 1976) - https://www.researchgate.net/publication/315917651_The_Evolving_Definition_of_the_Term_Gene