Disposable parts of plants mutate more quickly

Mutation rates are proposed to be a pragmatic balance struck between the harmful effects of mutations and the costs of suppressing them; this hypothesis predicts that longer-lived body parts and those that contribute to the ...

A possible explanation for how germlines are rejuvenated

(Phys.org)—A pair of researchers affiliated with the University of California and Calico Life Sciences, has discovered a possible explanation regarding how human germlines are rejuvenated. In their paper published in the ...

No designer babies, but gene editing to avoid disease? Maybe

Don't expect designer babies any time soon—but a major new ethics report leaves open the possibility of one day altering human heredity to fight genetic diseases, with stringent oversight, using new tools that precisely ...

Sex cells evolved to pass on quality mitochondria

Mammals immortalise their genes through eggs and sperm to ensure future generations inherit good quality mitochondria to power the body's cells, according to new UCL research.

How Wolbachia bacteria controls vectors of deadly diseases

Researchers at Boston University have made discoveries that provide the foundation towards novel approaches to control insects that transmit deadly diseases such as dengue fever and malaria through their study of the Wolbachia ...

Controlling self-renewal of stem cells

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists from the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research (FMI) are the first to establish a direct link between a conserved stem cell factor and the cell cycle regulation in adult stem cells. ...

Transgenic songbirds provide new tool to understand the brain

(PhysOrg.com) -- Over the decades, scientists have learned a lot about the basic life processes shared by many animals — including people — by manipulating the DNA of the "lower" species, such as mice and worms. But to ...

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