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 cell membrane is a fundamental biological structure. These lipid layers surround and organize every cell, controlling everything from signaling to transport. But for membranes to function properly, their physicochemical ...
Evolution
Aug 6, 2026
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Researchers sequenced the genomes of three medaka, or Japanese rice fish, a common model organism used in biological research, nearly 10 and 20 years ago. While sequencing the genomes was relatively straightforward, assembling ...
Plants & Animals
Aug 4, 2026
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The signals that cells use to switch genes on have remained almost unchanged across 2 billion years of evolution, but the ones used to switch genes off vary dramatically from one branch of life to another, according to a ...
Cell & Microbiology
Aug 3, 2026
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UC Berkeley researchers have identified regions of DNA that humans inherited from two unknown ancestors as a result of long-ago interbreeding among modern humans and at least four other archaic human relatives.
Evolution
Jul 30, 2026
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Researchers from Trinity College Dublin have recovered and analyzed the first ancient smallpox virus genomes ever identified in the Americas, providing the strongest direct evidence to date that the disease was introduced ...
Evolution
Jul 30, 2026
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The octopus is a biological oddity. It can use tools, open jars, and its complex nervous system supports as many neurons as a small primate. Now Harvard biologists have discovered a mysterious distinction in octopuses' core ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 29, 2026
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177
While headlines warn that AI could unleash future biological threats, the technology also offers our best defense: a way to anticipate viral evolution and stress-test treatments. Rather than waiting for SARS-CoV-2 to mutate ...
All cells in the human body—and the motions they enable, from our beating hearts to our wiggling toes—use energy generated by a molecule called ATP. Its energy is thought to be released to fuel cellular processes in only ...
Biotechnology
Jul 25, 2026
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Research co-authored by an Oklahoma Museum of Natural History curator, her graduate student and an international team of scientists has shed new light on the evolutionary "toolkit" animals use to survive environmental change.
Plants & Animals
Jul 20, 2026
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Scientists have made many advances using traditional CRISPR technology, especially in medicine, but they are now seeking ways to create genuinely new gene-editing enzymes with properties that have not already evolved naturally. ...
