Genetics is the branch of biological sciences that investigates the organization, transmission, variation, and functional consequences of hereditary information in organisms. It focuses on the structure and function of genes and genomes, the molecular mechanisms of DNA replication, transcription, and translation, and the regulation of gene expression across developmental and environmental contexts. Genetics encompasses classical (Mendelian) inheritance, molecular genetics, population and quantitative genetics, and genomics, providing the framework for understanding mutation, recombination, genetic linkage, and evolutionary change, as well as informing experimental design and interpretation in biomedical, agricultural, and model-organism research.
Evolution works over millennia. Climate change is moving far faster. That mismatch is killing some of the planet's most vital ecosystems, from California's towering redwoods to the seagrass meadows along its coast, both of ...
Ecology
Apr 10, 2026
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Stem cells are the body's ultimate shape-shifters, sustaining tissues by balancing two competing demands: maintaining their own population and generating specialized descendants. In many tissues, some early descendants can ...
Cell & Microbiology
Apr 7, 2026
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Researchers at Cornell University have developed a powerful new genetic toolkit that allows scientists to study how genes function at the level of individual cells, an advance that could accelerate discoveries in development, ...
Biotechnology
Apr 6, 2026
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A research team led by Zhen-Xing Endowed Professor Jian Yang at the School of Life Sciences, Westlake University, has developed a pangenome-informed genome assembly (PIGA) method. By combining a cost-effective hybrid sequencing ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Apr 3, 2026
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August Weismann's germ plasm theory of the late 19th century posited that only germ cells, e.g., sperm and egg cells in animals or pollen and ovule cells in plants, transmit genetic information to the next generation, and ...
Plants & Animals
Apr 2, 2026
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While humans often struggle to find a partner who is both physically attractive and a reliable co-parent, yeast may already have cracked the formula for the perfect match. When choosing mates, these single-celled organisms ...
Evolution
Mar 29, 2026
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For more than 40 years, the Golden State Killer haunted California. A serial rapist and murderer active in the 1970s and '80s, he eluded detectives for decades. By 2018, hope of identifying him was fading, until a woman—curious ...
Biotechnology
Mar 29, 2026
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The Galapagos Islands are famous for the discoveries that shaped Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. Now an SFSU graduate has added one more: Ezra Mendales (M.S., '23) describes a new species as part of his master's thesis. ...
Evolution
Mar 26, 2026
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What can the world's longest living individual teach us about longevity? A team of scientists coordinated by the University of California, Davis, sequenced the Great Basin bristlecone pine genome, which could help unlock ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 23, 2026
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93
Human genes are written in long strings of three-letter units composed of four different nucleotides. These units—or codons—specify one of many amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. Multiple codons can encode the ...
Cell & Microbiology
Mar 19, 2026
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