Evolutionarily in Biological News

Scripps scientists discover fluorescence in key marine creature

... at UC San Diego have discovered fluorescent-light emitting features in an evolutionarily important marine organism and say such a capacity may be much more ... in amphioxus, a fish-like animal closely studied by scientists due to its evolutionarily important position at the base of a large phylum of animals called ...

Census of protein architectures offers new view of history of life

... acid sequences, but retain structural and functional similarities and are evolutionarily related. Fold superfamilies are grouped together into broad categories, ... most forbidding environments on the planet, were the first to emerge as an evolutionarily distinguishable group. Their evidence: The repertoire of architectures ...

Dogs, humans, put heads together to find cure for brain cancer

... "Now, instead of looking at 50 million base pairs that contain several hundred genes, we can focus on the portion of human chromosome 22 that is evolutionarily conserved with dog chromosome 27," Breen says. "By looking at dog and human meningiomas together we reduce the amount of searching we need to do ...

Size did matter

... them with the same organs as 100 million years ago, it's safe to say this distinctive feature evolved only once in this group. It seems to be an evolutionarily successful reproduction strategy, even though it comes at an exceedingly high price for both genders, as a lot of energy is invested in producing and ...

DOE JGI releases expanded version of Phytozome.net

... annotations, sequence analysis, and bulk, as well as targeted, plant data retrieval. The gene families available in Phytozome, defined at several evolutionarily significant epochs, provide a framework for the transfer of functional information to important biofuel and agricultural crops from model plant ...

Genome projects launched for three extreme-environment animals

... regions at an altitude of 3,500-5,500 meters above sea level. The Tibetan antelope is the only extant species in the Pantholops genus. It has been evolutionarily isolated since the Himalayan orogeny, and has undergone millions of years of evolution that has not involved species migration or artificial ...

Penn biologists discover how 'silent' mutations influence protein production

... For biologists, these results fundamentally change the understanding of the role of synonymous mutations, which were previously considered evolutionarily neutral. The findings may also improve the design of therapeutic genes. Many drugs, such as insulin, are produced by transgenic cell lines. Using ...

Early family ties: No sponge in the human family tree

... in animal history, or that they were lost in sponges and placozoans," explains the LMU researcher. This new study, which compared more evolutionarily ancient life forms than ever before, presents a stimulating framework for future studies. "Our results can now be used to explore how certain key ...

Why don't more animals change their sex?

... sexes rarely outweigh the advantages. A report by Yale scientists in the March issue of The American Naturalist says that while this process is evolutionarily favored, its rarity cannot be explained by an analysis of the biological costs vs benefits. Sequential hermaphroditism naturally occurs in various ...

Carnegie's Arthur Grossman receives Gilbert Morgan Smith medal

... helped to define its full genome sequence and then exploiting the genomic information. Chlamy performs photosynthesis like plants, but it diverged evolutionarily from flowering land plants about 1 billion years ago and therefore contains many characteristics common to all plants, as well as characteristics ...

Why you can't hurry love

... a male gets a positive payoff from mating with any female, though his payoff is higher if he is "good" than if he is "bad". The study looks for evolutionarily stable equilibrium behaviours, in which females are doing as well as they can against male behaviour and males are doing as well as they can against ...

The medium is the message: Manipulating salmonella in spaceflight curtails infectiousness

... factor, the protein also acts to regulate ion response pathways,and has been associated with phosphate regulation. Moreover, Hfq appears to be an evolutionarily conserved regulatory factor, and may serve to globally modify bacterial responses to microgravity, regardless of the phenotypic outcomea decrease in ...

U of Minnesota researcher finds link between aggression, status and sex

... glass of water can lead to a fist fight or worse? University of Minnesota researcher Vladas Griskevicius has three words to explain why people may be evolutionarily inclined to make a mountain out of molehill: aggression, status and sex. Although hostility or belligerent acts might not immediately appear to be ...

Land iguanas under continuing threat on Galapagos archipelago

... data analysis to identify populations and characterize the genetic diversity within and the levels of genetic differentiation among these evolutionarily significant groups. Changes are influenced by the evolutionary forces of natural selection, genetic drift, mutation and gene flow. Scientists obtain ...

From genes to farmers' fields

... Bailey-Serres. Typically, rice plants will extend the length of their leaves and stem in an attempt to escape submergence. The Sub1A gene is an evolutionarily new gene in rice found in only a small proportion of the rice varieties originating from eastern India and Sri Lanka. The activation of this gene ...

Study reveals surprising details of the evolution of protein translation

... of protein translation in the sequence and structure of transfer RNA (tRNA). "Structure is highly conserved, capturing information that is evolutionarily deep," Caetano-Anolls said. "It was only logical to focus on transfer RNA, a molecule that is believed to be very ancient and is truly central to the ...

Male fish deceive rivals about their top mate choice

... will need to evaluate the potential for male mate choice copying and deception in natural populations, because male mate choice copying cannot be evolutionarily stable if males always have an opportunity to deceive rivals," they said. After all, if males always attempt such deception, any competitor who ...

A new cellular pathway linked to cancer is identified by NYU researchers

... to divide. Unlike the G2 checkpoint pathways that have been previously described, the researchers believe this one is "ancient" because it is evolutionarily conserved in organisms from yeast to humans. According to the study, the deregulation of these three pathway components (Cdc14B, APC/C, and ...

US Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute announces new genome sequencing projects

... of feeding solely on wood, utilizing a highly efficient system of symbiotic lignocellulose degradation that is biologically, functionally, and evolutionarily distinct from those found in termites, ruminants, and all other cellulose-consuming animals. Like termites, the ability of shipworms to consume wood ...

X chromosome exposed

... fruit flies and binds to different locations on the male and female X chromosome, the scientists report in the current issue of the journal Cell. The evolutionarily conserved enzyme is also found in humans. In species ranging from insects to humans, sex chromosomes, the famous X and Y, are responsible for ...

Scientists discover small RNAs that regulate gene expression and protect the genome

... processes by which small RNA molecules influence genetic activity. Viewed in combination, Dr. Hannon and colleagues write, our studies suggest an evolutionarily widespread adoption of double-stranded RNAs as regulatory molecules. ...

How alligators rock and roll

... diaphragm-like muscle and other muscles later evolved to assist breathing, then the second step was needed. Uriona and Farmer say it is simpler evolutionarily for one step to occur at a time, making it more logical that the diaphragm evolved first when early crocodilians took to the water, and began to play ...

The evolution of aversion: Why even children are fearful of snakes

... be based solely on fantasy. As scientists from the University of Virginia recently discovered, the common fear of snakes is most likely intrinsic. evolutionarily speaking, early humans who were capable of surviving the dangers of an uncivilized society adapted accordingly. And the same can be said of the ...

Total, genetically-based recall

... There are several human characteristics considered to be genetically predetermined and evolutionarily innate, such as immune system strength, physical adaptations and even sex differences. These qualities drive the nature versus nurture debate and ask ...

Hearing changes how we perceive gender

... very androgynous, said Smith. We simply need to know and will use any information at our disposal to identify a persons gender. It is probably quite evolutionarily adaptive to be able to accurately tell males from females, as far as propagation of ones genes is concerned. What is on the horizon? If sound ...

Green algae -- the nexus of plant/animal ancestry

... is an alga of 10 micrometres in size that is present in soil and freshwater environments. It performs photosynthesis like plants, but it diverged evolutionarily from flowering land plants about 1 billion years ago. It is even more distantly related to animals (the split between animals and plants was ~1.6 ...

Primate sperm competition: speed matters

... faster and stronger swimming sperm cells would in theory be more likely to successfully fertilize an egg. Rapidly swimming sperm cells would be evolutionarily favored when the mating pattern is polygamous and that is consistent with our measurements of chimp and rhesus macaque sperm, said Nascimento. The ...

Flies can turn off their immune response

... In mammals, over-activated NF-Bmediated immune responses can manifest in a utoimmune disease. Thus, feedback inhibition of NF- B appears to be evolutionarily conserved to maintain properly balanced immune responses. ...

Monkeys use 'baby talk' to interact with infants

... intended to carry information. A human sneeze, for instance, is a noise that people understand may be associated with a cold, but it did not develop evolutionarily to convey information. The study by Maestripieris team showed that the grunts and girneys emitted by the rhesus macaques fall into the category of ...

Uncertainty drives the evolution of 'cooperative breeding' in birds

... said Dustin Rubenstein of the University of California, Berkeley and the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology. Faced with this uncertainty, it pays, evolutionarily speaking, to live and breed in social groups that will help you weather the bad times and make the most of the good times. Living in cooperative ...

Savanna habitat drives birds, and perhaps others, to cooperative breeding

... are found mostly in forests, which have more reliable annual food resources. "Faced with an uncertain and unpredictable environment, it pays evolutionarily to live and breed in social groups that will help you weather the bad times and make the most of the good times," he said. "Living in cooperative ...

Interaction of just 2 genes governs coloration patterns in mice

... illuminates the pathway by which these two genes interact to produce distinctive coloration. There's reason to believe this simple pathway may be evolutionarily conserved across mammals that display lighter bellies and darker backs, from mice to tuxedo cats to German Shepherds." Hoekstra and co-authors ...

Where 'jumping genes' fear to tread

... species diverged from a common ancestor. It appears that many TFRs are evolutionarily conserved features that existed prior to ?and have been largely maintained ... a similar load of transposable elements compared to mice and humans but is evolutionarily distant from the two species. In contrast, the genomes of chicken and ...

MicroRNAs have shaped the evolution of the majority of mammalian genes

... portions of microRNAs. Some of these potential microRNA target sites are evolutionarily "conserved," meaning that they show up in the same spot on the same gene ... no longer needed at such high levels in the mature muscle. "Many of these evolutionarily conserved microRNA targets are known to be active in the processes of cell ...

How to steer a moving cell

... networks in the embryo, are also found to control the movement of normal and cancerous cells," said Klemke. "This is apparently a fundamental, evolutionarily conserved process in migrating cells. So it clearly has an important purpose to the cell." A network of proteins called the cytoskeleton, the ...

Protein fragments sequenced in 68 million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex

... acid sequences found in collagen of present day chickens, lending support to a recent and still controversial proposal that birds and dinosaurs are evolutionarily related. The HMS and BIDMC researchers, working with scientists at North Carolina State University, report their findings in the April 13 Science. ...

Ape gestures offer clues to the evolution of human communication

... By studying similar types of communication in closely related species, researchers are able to determine shared ancestry. We know gestures are evolutionarily younger than facial expressions and vocalizations, as shown by their presence in apes and humans but not in monkeys. "A gesture that occurs in ...

Single molecule extends fat mice lives by reversing gene pathways associated with disease in obese

... shown to offer survival benefits in a mammal. The study is reported in the November 1 advanced online edition of Nature. "Mice are much closer evolutionarily to humans than any previous model organism treated by this molecule, which offers hope that similar impacts might be seen in humans without negative ...

Road-crossing in chimpanzees: A risky business

... that broadens our understanding of primate cooperation, researchers have found that chimpanzees evaluate risk when crossing roads and draw on an evolutionarily old principle--shared with at least some other primates--of protective "socio-spatial" organization that produces flexible, adaptive, and cooperative ...