evolutionary 2 5

Tag: "evolutionary" at biology news

Sea urchin genome suprisingly similar to man and may hold key to cures

...rchins are closer to human and vertebrates from an evolutionary perspective than other more widely studied animal models, such as fruit fly or worms. The purple sea urchin, in fact, has 7,000 genes in common with humans, including genes associated with Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s diseases and muscul...

Genetic surprise confirms neglected 70-year-old evolutionary hypothesis

...y died twice. Theodosius Dobzhansky, a well-known evolutionary geneticist, studied fruit flies in the infant days...ect, the prospects of bolstering the controversial evolutionary idea looked increasingly bleak. Masly brought together two species of fruit fly--the workhorses of ...

Ocean seep mollusks may share evolutionary history with other deep-sea creatures

...y of Leeds. These findings indicate that the long evolutionary history of the seep mollusks is more similar to th...icult to tell whether seep mollusks owe their long evolutionary history to their unique home environment or to their status as deep-sea creatures, he noted. Cold s...

Two studies on bee evolution reveal surprises

...e bee fossil also has some wasp traits suggests an evolutionary link between wasps and bees. In a related study...study to date on bee family-level phylogeny -- the evolutionary development and diversification of a species. Their goal was to examine the early evolutionary patte...

Study illuminates how the plague bacteria causes disease

...bacterial strain to another and that may confer an evolutionary advantage, such as antibiotic resistance. In the case of Yersinia, the plasmid harbors numerous genes, including a large number that contribute to the ability of diverse pathogens to deliver virulence factors into host cells. One of these genes is ...

Scientist's persistence sheds light on marine science riddle

...eping would eventually shed light on a 40-year-old evolutionary debate. The debate involves the mechanism underl..., but I had not anticipated asking this particular evolutionary question," said Rosenberg, Vice President for the Center for Systematic Biology and Evolution at The...

Finding an answer to Darwin's Dilemma

...rated oxygen through photosynthesis. This began an evolutionary radiation that led to complex communities of filter-feeding animals, then mobile bilateral animals, and ultimately to the Cambrian "explosion" of skeletal animals 542 million years ago. ...

Small, smaller, smallest -- The plight of the vaquita

... extreme loss of genomic variability occurred over evolutionary time rather than recently owing to human-caused mortality. Instead of those factors, the “smoking gun?in this instance is accidental mortality in fishing gear, something popularly known as “bycatch? Large-, medium- and small-mesh gillnets set for ...

Embryonic patterning makes the feathers fly

...lems like developmental disorders, on questions in evolutionary biology, and on new biotech possibilities including tissue engineering....

Unraveling where chimp and human brains diverge

...LA studies will focus on linking the expression of evolutionary genes to specific regions of the brain, such as those that regulate language, speech and other uniquely human abilities. ...

Genetic study of Neanderthal DNA reveals early split between humans and Neanderthals

...rthals and humans. The study helps to explain the evolutionary relationship between Homo sapiens and Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis). It also "signifies the dawn of Neanderthal genomics," wrote the study's authors, who comprise scientists from the Lawrence Berkeley (Calif.) National Laboratory, the U.S. Dep...

Does missing gene point to nocturnal existence for early mammals?

...maly between mammals and other vertebrates down to evolutionary differences," said Dr Bellingham, who is based in the Faculty of Life Sciences. "But we have now learnt that other vertebrates have a second melanopsin gene ?one that matches the one found earlier in mammals and humans. The first melanopsin gene f...

Pressured by predators, lizards see rapid shift in natural selection

...n as a process played out over the course of eons, evolutionary biologists have shown that natural selection can t...ty in St. Louis. "Because of its epochal scope, evolutionary biology is often caricatured as incompatible with controlled experimentation," says Losos, professor...

Public Library of Science to launch new, open access journal on neglected tropical diseases

...ck Brown, and University of California at Berkeley evolutionary biologist Michael Eisen. Dr. Varmus said: "The launch of PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases means that the latest knowledge on neglected diseases will be disseminated globally and will be freely available to all, so that everyone can reap the benefit...

For crickets, parasitic flies can stop the music

...y shed light on the interplay between the powerful evolutionary forces of sexual selection and natural selection, said UF zoology professor Jane Brockmann. On the one hand, singing and finding mates increases a male’s reproductive success; on the other, it also carries high potential costs, Brockmann said. "Th...

Does natural selection drive the evolution of cancer?

...y field that brings the thinking of ecologists and evolutionary biologists to bear on cancer biology. Insights from their work may have profound implications for understanding why current cancer therapies often fail and how radically new therapies might be devised. A review by researchers at The Wistar Insti...

Caterpillars tell us how bacteria cause disease

...h as amoeba and insects for a staggering length of evolutionary time. It seems likely that most virulence genes around today probably first evolved to work against these hosts". With funding from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council's (BBSRC) Exploiting Genomics Initiative, Dr Waterfield ...

Researchers barcode DNA of Venice museum's vast fungi collection

... "This will be important for people who study the evolutionary characteristics of fungi," said Bergemann. "They'll be able to use our database for cross comparisons. It's also useful for people who study species distribution. For example, if you want to figure out how some species are related to one another, and...

Researchers give name to ancient mystery creature

...ly identify it, and exactly where it fits into the evolutionary ladder is still unknown. Horolodectes remains an enigma to this day. "It's just too bizarre to place in any group that we've known about previously," said Scott. "It's an open question until we can find more of it. We have no information from a sku...

New dwarf buffalo discovered by chance in the Philippines

...servation priority, is vital for understanding the evolutionary development of the modern Philippine flora and fau...ammals confined to an island shrink in response to evolutionary factors. This may occur due to a lack of predators (the animal no longer needs to be large to avoid ...

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