Researchers have identified two key proteins that act as genetic 'architects', creating the blueprint needed by embryos during the earliest stages of their development.
Biotechnology
Apr 13, 2015
15
44
A joint team of geneticists from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, demonstrated that the emergence of mammary glands in placental mammals and marsupials ...
Evolution
Nov 15, 2016
0
5
Lacking bones, brains, and even a complete gut, the body plans of simple animals like sea anemones appear to have little in common with humans and their vertebrate kin. Nevertheless, new research from Investigator Matt Gibson, ...
Evolution
Jun 13, 2023
0
100
Biologists have long assumed that all jawed vertebrates possess a full complement of nearly identical genes for critical aspects of their development. But a paper in the December 16 issue of Science with Benjamin King of ...
Biotechnology
Dec 15, 2011
1
0
Adult insects, including butterflies and moths, typically have only three pairs of legs. But the existence of extra legs in caterpillars—chubby abdominal appendages also known as "prolegs"—has long posed an evolutionary ...
Evolution
Oct 13, 2023
0
143
The remarkable diversity of anatomical features along the body axis of animals—the differences between the head, the thorax and the abdomen, for example—is determined by proteins in the Hox family. But almost as soon ...
Biotechnology
Jan 22, 2015
2
24
If you ever find yourself staring down a manta ray, you'll probably notice two things right away: the massive, flapping fins that produce the shark cousin's 20-foot wingspan and the two fleshy growths curling out of its head ...
Plants & Animals
Nov 30, 2018
0
52
According to the '2R hypothesis', the evolution of modern vertebrates was propelled forward in part by two events in our early ancestry in which the entire genome was duplicated. These events, known as 1R and 2R, yielded ...
Biotechnology
Feb 12, 2014
0
0
Lamprey—slimy, eel-like parasitic fish with tooth-riddled, jawless sucking mouths—are rather disgusting to look at, but thanks to their important position on the vertebrate family tree, they can offer important insights ...
Plants & Animals
Sep 17, 2014
0
0
While most people in the U.S. may think of bumble bees as the standard yellow and black variety, there are an estimated 260 bee species that sport about 400 different color patterns. One reason many people associate bumble ...
Plants & Animals
Oct 22, 2021
0
107
