Northern bettong genes reveal low genetic diversity, complicating protection measures
Scientists surveying the endangered northern bettong have discovered one particular sub-population of the species is in significant trouble and needs urgent help.
Scientists surveying the endangered northern bettong have discovered one particular sub-population of the species is in significant trouble and needs urgent help.
Plants & Animals
22 hours ago
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4
Candidate genes that could help fish to tolerate warmer and saltier water have been identified in new research from the Earlham Institute, potentially providing a vital resource to guide breeding programs in freshwater aquaculture.
Molecular & Computational biology
Jun 9, 2023
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Population-level changes in the genetic make-up of one of the world's deadliest animals could provide a key in the fight against malaria, proponents of a radical new technology argue.
Ecology
Jun 8, 2023
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Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, China, have applied machine learning to genetic sequence data from wild and domestic European grapes.
Cephalopods are a large family of marine animals that includes octopuses, cuttlefish and squid. They live in every ocean, from warm, shallow tropical waters to near-freezing, abyssal depths. More remarkably, report two scientists ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 8, 2023
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27
Each cell comes with a finite set of instructions encoded in its DNA. Life, however, is unpredictable, and when circumstances change, animals need flexibility to acclimate. New research led by Joshua Rosenthal of the Marine ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 8, 2023
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25
An international team of researchers has unlocked a large-scale genomic analysis of Setaria or foxtail millet, an important cereal crop. The study, led by researchers at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and including ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Jun 8, 2023
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30
During cell division, chromosomes, i.e., molecules containing our genetic material, must be properly replicated and segregated so that each daughter cell receives a complete and accurate set. Now, in an article published ...
Cell & Microbiology
Jun 8, 2023
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55
An animal's brain consists of two different types of cell: neurons, which process and transmit information, and glial cells, which support the neurons in a variety of ways. In 1871, the French anatomist Louis-Antoine Ranvier ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Jun 8, 2023
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216
The mung bean, commonly known as green gram, has played a pivotal role as a cheap protein source in regions where access to meat is limited. Spanning over 4,500 years, the cultivation of this humble legume has sustained civilizations ...
Evolution
Jun 6, 2023
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122
Genetics (from Ancient Greek γενετικός genetikos, “genitive” and that from γένεσις genesis, “origin”), a discipline of biology, is the science of heredity and variation in living organisms. The fact that living things inherit traits from their parents has been used since prehistoric times to improve crop plants and animals through selective breeding. However, the modern science of genetics, which seeks to understand the process of inheritance, only began with the work of Gregor Mendel in the mid-nineteenth century. Although he did not know the physical basis for heredity, Mendel observed that organisms inherit traits via discrete units of inheritance, which are now called genes.
Genes correspond to regions within DNA, a molecule composed of a chain of four different types of nucleotides—the sequence of these nucleotides is the genetic information organisms inherit. DNA naturally occurs in a double stranded form, with nucleotides on each strand complementary to each other. Each strand can act as a template for creating a new partner strand—this is the physical method for making copies of genes that can be inherited.
The sequence of nucleotides in a gene is translated by cells to produce a chain of amino acids, creating proteins—the order of amino acids in a protein corresponds to the order of nucleotides in the gene. This relationship between nucleotide sequence and amino acid sequence is known as the genetic code. The amino acids in a protein determine how it folds into a three-dimensional shape; this structure is, in turn, responsible for the protein's function. Proteins carry out almost all the functions needed for cells to live. A change to the DNA in a gene can change a protein's amino acids, changing its shape and function: this can have a dramatic effect in the cell and on the organism as a whole. Two additional factors that can change the shape of the protein are pH and temperature.
Although genetics plays a large role in the appearance and behavior of organisms, it is the combination of genetics with what an organism experiences that determines the ultimate outcome. For example, while genes play a role in determining an organism's size, the nutrition and other conditions it experiences after inception also have a large effect.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA