Scientists date the origin of the cacao tree to 10 million years ago
Chocolate, produced from seeds of the cacao tree Theobroma cacao, is one of the most popular flavors in the world, with sales around 100$ billion dollars per year. Yet, as worldwide demand increases,...
View ArticleGenetic changes in birds could throw light on human mitochondrial diseases
Deakin University and UNSW Australia researchers have made a rare observation of rapid evolution in action in the wild, documenting the spread of a newly arisen genetic mutation in invasive starlings,...
View ArticleThe 'eyes' have it: Astronaut vision and ophthalmologic problems explained
Just when you think you've seen it all, our eyes look to be victims of a low-gravity environments, too. According to new research published in the January 2016 issue of The FASEB Journal, two...
View ArticleOn Darwin's birthday, tomato genetics study sheds light on plant evolution
On Charles Darwin's 207th birthday, a new study of evolution in a diverse group of wild tomatoes is shedding light on the importance of genetic variation in plants.
View ArticleImportance of introgression on intra-specific genetic differentiation and...
The origin of alpine plants in Japan can be traced back to migration from northern regions such the northern Pacific and Arctic during the Pleistocene glacial period. In contrast to this biogeographic...
View ArticleSurface-going cave crickets actually more isolated than cave-dwelling cousins
People sometimes rely on the stereotype of a kid living in their parents' basement to illustrate poor socialization and isolation.
View ArticleHow serious is inbreeding in show dogs?
A German shepherd with a sloping back that was awarded best of breed brought the dog show Crufts in for this year's annual bout of criticism. Viewers took to social media to accuse the owner of animal...
View ArticleStone Age hunters contributed adaptive variants to present-day Europeans
Modern humans have adapted to their local environments over many thousands of years, but how genetic variation contributed to this adaptation remains debated. Using genomes from humans that lived...
View ArticleTechnical advances in reading long DNA sequences have ramifications in...
Technical advances in reading long DNA sequences have ramifications in understanding primate evolution and human disease.
View ArticleIsland foxes may be 'least variable' of all wild animals
In comparison to their relatives on the mainland, the Channel Island foxes living on six of California's Channel Islands are dwarves, at two-thirds the size. The island foxes most likely evolved from...
View ArticleNatural selection sculpts genetic information to limit diversity
A study of butterflies suggests that when a species adapts, other parts of its genetic make-up can be linked to that adaptation, limiting diversity in the population.
View ArticleDefining the consequences of genetic variation on a proteome-wide scale
Combining two emerging large-scale technologies for the first time—multiplexed mass spectrometry and a mouse population with a high level of natural genetic diversity —researchers at Harvard Medical...
View ArticleExtensive variation revealed in 1,001 genomes and epigenomes of Arabidopsis
An international team of scientists has sequenced the whole genomes and epigenomes of more than 1,000 Arabidopsis thaliana plants, sampled from geographically diverse locations. The collection of 1,001...
View ArticleGenes underlying dogs' social ability revealed
The social ability of dogs is affected by genes that also seems to influence human behaviour, according to a new study from Linköping University in Sweden. The scientists have found a relationship...
View Article1,000 prehistoric individuals to be genetically mapped
A new research project, '1,000 Ancient Genomes', seeks to map the genetic variation among 1,000 prehistoric individuals who lived in Europe and Asia between 1,000 and 50,000 years ago. This data will...
View ArticleGenomic study of high school students from Denmark reveals remarkable genetic...
People from Denmark are genetically similar to each other no matter which part of the country they come from, report researchers in the journal Genetics, a publication of the Genetics Society of...
View ArticleEuropeans and Africans have different immune systems, and Neanderthals are...
It's long been clear that people from different parts of the world differ in their susceptibility to developing infections as well as chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. Now, two studies...
View ArticleCorals survived Caribbean climate change
Half of all coral species in the Caribbean went extinct between 1 and 2 million years ago, probably due to drastic environmental changes. Which ones survived? Scientists working at the Smithsonian...
View ArticleEvolution in action: A fish adapts quickly to lethal levels of pollution
Evolution is working hard to rescue some urban fish from a lethal, human-altered environment, according to a study led by the University of California, Davis, and published Dec. 9 in the journal Science.
View ArticleTesting how species respond to climate change
Predicting how species will respond to climate change is a critical part of efforts to prevent widespread climate-driven extinction, or to predict its consequences for ecosystems.
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