Mutation rates are proposed to be a pragmatic balance struck between the harmful effects of mutations and the costs of suppressing them; this hypothesis predicts that longer-lived body parts and those that contribute to the ...
Biotechnology
Apr 9, 2019
0
33
Duckweeds are a treat for many aquatic animals like ducks and snails, but for pond owners, they're sometimes a thorn in the side. The tiny and fast-growing plants are of great interest to researchers, not at least because ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 27, 2019
0
3
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital investigators have developed software to shrink the error rate in next-generation sequencing data by as much as 100-fold, which would likely speed early detection of relapse and other ...
Biotechnology
Mar 14, 2019
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16
Researchers from Aarhus University, Denmark, and Copenhagen Zoo have discovered that the human mutation rate is significantly slower than for our closest primate relatives. This new knowledge may be important for estimates ...
Plants & Animals
Jan 23, 2019
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352
Cancer first develops as a single cell going rogue, with mutations that trigger aggressive growth at all costs to the health of the organism. But if cancer cells were accumulating harmful mutations faster than they could ...
Evolution
Jan 15, 2019
2
255
A team of researchers from Canada and the U.S. has found that a giant fungus covering many acres has a stable mutation rate. In their paper published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the group describes their study ...
With many disease-causing bacteria ratcheting up their shields against current drugs, new tactics are vital to protect people from treatment-resistant infections.
Cell & Microbiology
Nov 16, 2018
0
87
We are all mutants. Every characteristic that defines our species is the result of a genetic mutation somewhere in the history of evolution. And the same is true for every other organism on the planet. Yet more often than ...
Biotechnology
Apr 16, 2018
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10
Nucleic acid sequencing methods, which determine the order of nucleotides in DNA fragments, are rapidly progressing. These processes yield large quantities of sequence data—some of which is dynamic—that helps researchers ...
Mathematics
Dec 28, 2017
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345
Mutations generate genetic variation, and are a major driving force of evolution. Therefore, examining mutation rates and modes are essential to better understand the genetic basis for physiology and evolution.
Biotechnology
Nov 7, 2017
0
4
