Molecular evolution is the biological process encompassing changes in the nucleotide sequences of DNA or RNA and the amino acid sequences of proteins over time, driven by mutation, recombination, genetic drift, natural selection, and other population-level forces. It focuses on the rates and patterns of substitutions, insertions, deletions, and genome rearrangements, as well as the emergence of new genes and regulatory elements. Molecular evolution underlies divergence among species, functional innovation, and conservation of essential biomolecules, and is quantitatively analyzed using models of sequence evolution, comparative genomics, and phylogenetic inference to elucidate evolutionary relationships and constraints at the molecular level.
The conservation of genome regulatory elements over long periods of evolution is not limited to vertebrates, as previously thought, but also in echinoderms (invertebrates). This is one of the most notable conclusions of a ...
Evolution
Jan 8, 2026
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Matías Gómez-Corrales, a recent biological sciences Ph.D. graduate from the University of Rhode Island, and his advisor, Associate Professor Carlos Prada, have published a paper in Nature Communications, revealing key mechanisms ...
Evolution
Dec 23, 2025
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Humans have it. So does Drosophila. But not yeast. That "it" is a small pause at the start of gene activity—a brief molecular halt that may have helped life evolve from simple cells to complex animals.
Evolution
Dec 19, 2025
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More than a decade after the first Neanderthal genome was sequenced, scientists are still working to understand how human-specific DNA changes shaped human evolution.
Evolution
Dec 10, 2025
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In southern Africa, a group of people lived in partial isolation for hundreds of thousands of years. This is shown in a new study based on analyses of the genomes of 28 people who lived between 10,200 and 150 years ago in ...
Evolution
Dec 3, 2025
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223
A new study by researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison provides the first empirical evidence connecting the chromosomal location of genes to natural selection, indicating the arrangement of genes can influence ...
Evolution
Nov 24, 2025
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Cornell researchers have found that a new DNA sequencing technology can be used to study how transposons move within and bind to the genome. Transposons play critical roles in immune response, neurological function and genetic ...
Biotechnology
Nov 21, 2025
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55
For a long time, evolutionary biologists have thought that the genetic mutations that drive the evolution of genes and proteins are largely neutral: they're neither good nor bad, but just ordinary enough to slip through the ...
Evolution
Nov 14, 2025
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109
Animals from completely different branches of the tree of life, such as insects, worms and vertebrates, independently evolved similar genetic solutions to survive on land, according to a new study from researchers at the ...
Plants & Animals
Nov 12, 2025
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3
The bacteria Acinetobacter baumannii (A. baumannii) is a haunting presence in many hospitals in the United States, where more than one in 100 patients are treated for A. baumannii infections. This species of bacteria is known ...
Evolution
Nov 6, 2025
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