Using AI to scrutinize and validate theories on animal evolution
By harnessing the power of machine learning, researchers have constructed a framework for analyzing what factors most significantly contribute to a species' genetic diversity.
By harnessing the power of machine learning, researchers have constructed a framework for analyzing what factors most significantly contribute to a species' genetic diversity.
Evolution
Jul 18, 2024
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A new study shows that a native potato species was brought to southern Utah by Indigenous people in the distant past, making it a candidate for the only culturally significant plant species to have been domesticated in the ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Jul 18, 2024
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13
The Prunus genus, encompassing apricots, peaches, plums, and mei, is vital due to its economic and nutritional value. However, the genetic foundations of these species' shared and unique traits remain largely unexplored. ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Jul 18, 2024
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Utility companies offer flexible electricity rates depending on the time of day to reduce demand at peak hours. That way, consumers can save some money, say, by using the dishwasher or tumble dryer at night. And the utilities ...
Biotechnology
Jul 17, 2024
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Genetic diversity is essential to the survival of a species. It's easy enough to maintain if a species reproduces sexually; an egg and a sperm combine genetic material from two creatures into one, forming a genomically robust ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 16, 2024
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240
In new research, Arizona State University scientists and their colleagues investigated genetic changes occurring in a naturally isolated population of the water flea, Daphnia pulex. This tiny crustacean, barely visible to ...
Evolution
Jul 15, 2024
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298
Ask a 10-year-old to name some extinct animals and they can usually rattle off ancient species such as the Tasmanian Tiger, Woolly Mammoth and Dodo. Some may even be able to tell you what the animals used to look like without ...
Ecology
Jul 9, 2024
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Worldwide, 20% of the bacterial strains that cause typhoid fever have genetic variations in their external layer, called Vi capsule, that provide higher virulence, higher infectivity and high antibiotic resistance, Cornell ...
Cell & Microbiology
Jul 9, 2024
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17
A new study challenges the common theory that the devastating potato blight pathogen Phytophthora infestans originated in Mexico. Researchers meticulously reconstructed its global migration history and found it likely originated ...
Agriculture
Jul 1, 2024
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Under pressure from predatory foxes and cats and competing with feral rabbits, the Greater bilby has lost more than 80% of its habitat. Conservation work led by Professor Carolyn Hogg is designed to help save the bilby from ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 1, 2024
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Genetic diversity is a level of biodiversity that refers to the total number of genetic characteristics in the genetic makeup of a species. It is distinguished from genetic variability, which describes the tendency of genetic characteristics to vary.
The academic field of population genetics includes several hypotheses and theories regarding genetic diversity. The neutral theory of evolution proposes that diversity is the result of the accumulation of neutral substitutions. Diversifying selection is the hypothesis that two subpopulations of a species live in different environments that select for different alleles at a particular locus. This may occur, for instance, if a species has a large range relative to the mobility of individuals within it. Frequency-dependent selection is the hypothesis that as alleles become more common, they become less fit. This is often invoked in host-pathogen interactions, where a high frequency of a defensive allele among the host means that it is more likely that a pathogen will spread if it is able to overcome that allele.
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