The human genome is littered with "selfish genetic elements," which do not seem to benefit their hosts, but instead seek only to propagate themselves.
Evolution
Jul 6, 2022
0
94
Jaws was the only word needed to give the iconic 1970's thriller about a great white with a preference for humans its eerie title. Though a strong and important player at the top of the foodchain, sharks face a range of enemies: ...
Plants & Animals
May 4, 2022
0
69
An international consortium of scientists has launched a new effort to create a reference genome that captures the genetic diversity of all the peoples of the world. The researchers describe the initiative, called the Human ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Apr 20, 2022
0
164
A collaborative team led by researchers at the University of Texas (UT) at Austin, the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology (HudsonAlpha), and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute (JGI), a DOE Office ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Apr 13, 2022
0
30
An international research team has shown that parthenogenesis, a form of asexual reproduction, negatively affects the genome evolution of the animals that practice it. In this type of reproduction, the offspring are produced ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 25, 2022
0
53
Missing metadata—data that provide information about other data—might not sound like a big deal, but it's a costly problem that's hindering humanity's plans to protect the planet's biodiversity. An international team ...
Ecology
Aug 27, 2021
0
48
For the first time, researchers have successfully sequenced the entire genome from the skull of Peştera Muierii 1, a woman who lived in today's Romania 35,000 years ago. Her high genetic diversity shows that the out of Africa ...
Evolution
May 20, 2021
0
242
An international team of researchers has conducted a genomic study of 40 human remains recovered from parts of upper east Asia in what is now mostly Siberia. In their paper published in the journal Science Advances, the group ...
Thousands of years ago, people in South America began domesticating Solanum pimpinellifolium, a weedy plant with small, intensely flavored fruit. Over time, the plant evolved into S. lycopersicum—the modern cultivated tomato.
Ecology
Dec 1, 2020
1
805
Deep inside your cells, DNA provides the instructions to produce proteins, the essential molecules that grow and maintain your body.
Cell & Microbiology
Nov 17, 2020
0
1720
