Revealing the evolutionary origin of genomic imprinting 

Some of our genes can be expressed or silenced depending on whether we inherited them from our mother or our father. The mechanism behind this phenomenon, known as genomic imprinting, is determined by DNA modifications during ...

Virus-like transposons cross the species barrier, study shows

Scientists have known for decades that genes can be transferred from one species to another, both in animals and plants. However, the mechanism of how such an unlikely event occurs remained unknown. Now, researchers from ...

Sexual selection: Why do females prefer ornate male signals?

Sexual selection provides an answer to the existence of lavishly ornate signals in animals, but not to the question of why such signals are attractive—for example, why do females prefer the extravagant plumage of peacocks? ...

How the selfish genes of yeast succeed

New findings from the Stowers Institute for Medical Research uncover critical insights about how a dangerous selfish gene—considered to be a parasitic portion of DNA—functions and survives. Understanding this dynamic ...

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