Wine yeast genomes lack diversity

Sequencing the genomes of hundreds of strains of the wine yeast S. cerevisiae has revealed little genetic diversity and high levels of inbreeding. In many cases, yeast strains sold by different companies were almost genetically ...

The evolution of Dark-fly

On November 11, 1954, Syuiti Mori turned out the lights on a small group of fruit flies. More than sixty years later, the descendents of those flies have adapted to life without light. These flies—a variety now known as ...

Tiny genetic tweak unlocked corn kernels during domestication

If not for a single genetic mutation, each kernel on a juicy corn cob would be trapped inside a inedible casing as tough as a walnut shell. The mutation switches one amino acid for another at a specific position in a protein ...

Domestication syndrome: White patches, baby faces and tameness

More than 140 years ago, Charles Darwin noticed something peculiar about domesticated mammals. Compared to their wild ancestors, domestic species are more tame, and they also tend to display a suite of other characteristic ...

Sex chromosomes have reverted to autosomes multiple times in flies

At the GSA Drosophila Research Conference, scientists will present evidence of many reversals of sex chromosome to autosomes in flies. They identified nine independently evolved sex chromosomes in a wider variety of fly species ...

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