Almost all of our genes may be influenced by the food we eat, according to new research published in the journal Nature Microbiology. The study, carried out in yeast – which can be used to model some of the body's fundamental ...
Cell & Microbiology
Feb 11, 2016
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The only constant is change. In evolution, there are, however, some exceptions. While the enormous diversity of life suggests that organisms are constantly being refitted with new or modified parts, many of the tools used ...
Biotechnology
Feb 9, 2016
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10
(Phys.org)—Synthetic biology is a multi-disciplinary field that applies engineering techniques to biological systems. While the foundations of synthetic biology were laid in the 1990s with the burgeoning of genomics and ...
Many of us probably remember the punnett squares by which we were introduced to the idea of genetic inheritance in school: a dominant allele in each of my brown-eyed parents hides a recessive allele that explains my blue ...
Biotechnology
Nov 24, 2015
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3
From appearance to endurance, nature's adaptations all trace back to complex molecular networks of living things. Improving our understanding of how genes give rise to outward adaptations may hinge on three concepts from ...
Biotechnology
Oct 29, 2015
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17
A cell's life is a noisy affair. These building blocks of life are constantly changing. They can spontaneously express different proteins and genes, change shape and size, die or resist dying, or become damaged and cancerous. ...
Cell & Microbiology
Sep 17, 2015
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15
How did the elephant get its trunk? Or the turtle its shell? How, in general, did the seemingly infinite diversity of complex animal forms on our planet arise? The scientific pursuit of how such "evolutionary novelties" come ...
Evolution
Sep 8, 2015
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42
Natural selection is a race to reproduce, a competition between individuals with varying traits that helps direct the evolution of a species. As scientists begin to explore the complex networks of genes that shape the form ...
Biotechnology
Sep 3, 2015
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A team of researchers with the University of California has found a way to show how historical contingencies constrained the evolution of a gene regulatory network. In their paper published in the journal Nature, the team ...
Scientists have extensive knowledge of how mutations of single genes during evolution can have a fitness cost or benefit for the host organism. However, genes are often embedded into complex regulatory networks. The role ...
Biotechnology
Feb 13, 2015
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