Evolution News and Research

RSS

Understanding evolution of early life may be trickier than previously thought

Biologists have long hoped to understand the nature of the earliest living organisms on Earth. If they could, they might then be able to say something about how, when, and where life arose on Earth, and perhaps by extension, whether life is common in the Universe.

23 Apr 2020

DNA may not be the 'blueprint' for life, just a scrambled list of ingredients

The common view of heredity is that all information passed down from one generation to the next is stored in an organism's DNA. But Antony Jose, associate professor of cell biology and molecular genetics at the University of Maryland, disagrees.

23 Apr 2020

Researchers analyze genomic diversifications of five cotton lineages

Come harvest time, the cotton fields look like popcorn is literally growing on plants, with fluffy white bolls bursting out of the green pods in every direction.

21 Apr 2020

A ‘virtual embryo’ for unprecedented single-cell studies

Researchers from EMBL Heidelberg and from the University of Padua School of Medicine have created the first complete description of early embryo development, accounting for every single cell in the embryo.

21 Apr 2020

Plant Diversity In European Forests Is Declining

In Europe's temperate forests, less common plant species are being replaced by more widespread species.

20 Apr 2020

Economic Growth Is Incompatible With Biodiversity Conservation

The increase in resource consumption and polluting emissions as a result of economic growth is not compatible with biodiversity conservation.

17 Apr 2020

New mathematical model to characterize long-term evolutionary scenarios

Species under a taxonomic umbrella often go through adaptation or face extinction when they encounter a division in the path, and the road that is taken has been hard to track.

16 Apr 2020

New study on transposable elements could help advance understanding of genetic evolution

There has been very little knowledge of ways in which transposable elements play a role in gene regulation. Transposable elements are small DNA pieces with the ability to replicate and scatter themselves in the genome.

16 Apr 2020

Identifying Potential Drugs Earlier In Discovery

Scientists have developed a technique that could significantly reduce the time of discovering potential new antibody-based drugs to treat disease.

16 Apr 2020

New algorithm predicts the evolution of genetic mutations in species

David McCandlish and Juannan Zhou, both quantitative biologists at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, have designed a new algorithm that has predictive power, providing researchers the ability to observe the way particular genetic mutations combine to make crucial proteins change over the duration of a species’ evolution.

16 Apr 2020

Climate change to affect complex food webs in the oceans

Global climate change will affect fish sizes in unpredictable ways and, consequently, impact complex food webs in our oceans, a new IMAS-led study has shown.

10 Apr 2020

Breakthrough In Unlocking Genetic Potential Of Ocean Microbes

Researchers have made a major breakthrough in developing gene-editing tools to improve our understanding of ocean microbes.

10 Apr 2020

Study on butterfly breeding sheds light on the evolution of iridescent colors

At her Florida-based butterfly farm, Edith Smith bred a shinier and bluer Common Buckeye but it was Rachel Thayer, a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) who described the genetic and physical variations that are fundamental to the newly acquired iridescence of the butterfly.

9 Apr 2020

New study on proteins advances basic understanding of human life

A minute chemical modification on one of the most copious and vital proteins in cells—actin—has been a mystery as its function is not fully known.

9 Apr 2020

Study reveals details of evolutionary chemical arms race in wallflowers

A new study shows that two chemicals used by wallflowers and their family to keep predators at bay have evolved to complement each other.

8 Apr 2020

Gene-editing tools developed to study ocean microbes

Researchers have achieved significant progress in the development of gene-editing tools that could help gain better insights into one of the most crucial ocean microbes on the planet.

8 Apr 2020

Virginia Tech researchers discover genes for metabolic cycles in 'giant viruses'

In satellite photos of the Earth, clouds of bright green bloom across the surface of lakes and oceans as algae populations explode in nutrient-rich water. From the air, the algae appear to be the primary players in the ecological drama unfolding below.

6 Apr 2020