Genetic Archaeology News Archives Page 5

The unusual biology of lichens (12/3/2007)

Lichens are extraordinary organisms, at once commonplace and exotic. They grow all around us on ordinary trees and rocks and stone walls. But as symbionts that can survive the Earth's most desolate frontiers, they also seem the stuff of science fiction. In reality, lichens are complex organisms comprising a fungus and an alga living in symbiosis. ...> Full Article

The Viking Roots of Northwest England (12/2/2007)

Collaborative study from universities of Leicester and Nottingham exploits connection between surnames and DNA ...> Full Article

Microbes in Ancient Ice Could Explain How Life Adapts to Harsh Environments (12/2/2007)

Study will analyze the microbes' DNA for clues to life's origin ...> Full Article

Bees Are The New Silkworms (12/1/2007)

Moths and butterflies, particularly silkworms, are well known producers of silk. And we all know spiders use it for their webs. But they are not the only invertebrates who make use of the strength and versatility of silk. ...> Full Article

New research to decode the genetic secrets of prolific potato pest (12/1/2007)

The full weight of a consortium of world-leading scientists - including those who helped decode the entire human genome - is being thrown at a parasitic worm less than 1mm long. ...> Full Article

New study unravels how plants respond to light (11/30/2007)

Researchers report a breakthrough in understanding how plants perceive and respond to light. ...> Full Article

Hotspots found for chromosome gene-swapping (11/30/2007)

Simple mechanism for making sure that all chromosomes, even the shortest ones, have the crossovers required for meiosis ...> Full Article

Flowering plants evolved very quickly into five groups (11/30/2007)

Scientists have shed light on what Charles Darwin called the "abominable mystery" of early plant evolution. ...> Full Article

Discovery of gene for black coat color in dogs has broad implications (11/29/2007)

The discovery of a gene responsible for black coat color in dogs may help researchers understand fundamental processes in humans, including the regulation of body weight and stress hormones. ...> Full Article

Global warming sends salamanders packing (11/29/2007)

A genetic study of the salamander family that encompasses two-thirds of the world's salamander species shows that periods of global warming helped the amphibians diversify and expand their range from North America into Europe and Asia, where pockets of them are still found today. ...> Full Article

Gene study adds weight to theory that native people of the Americas arrived in a single main migration across the Bering Strait (11/28/2007)

Researchers analyze 678 genetic markers in 29 native populations ...> Full Article

Scientists melt million-year-old ice in search of ancient microbes (11/28/2007)

Researchers have thawed ice estimated to be at least a million years old from above Lake Vostok, an ancient lake that lies hidden more than two miles beneath the frozen surface of Antarctica. ...> Full Article

New discoveries about pig evolution in East Asia (11/27/2007)

The research into the origins of domestic animals is of significance not only for understanding their development per se, but also for understanding the human society evolution. Although there are evidences to show that pigs were independently domesticated in multiple places throughout the world, the detailed scenario of the origin and dispersal of domestic pigs in East Asia remains unclear. ...> Full Article

Bear hunting altered genetics more than Ice Age isolation (11/27/2007)

It was not the isolation of the Ice Age that determined the genetic distribution of bears, as has long been thought. This is shown by an international research team led from Uppsala University in Sweden in the latest issue of Molecular Ecology. One possible interpretation is that the hunting of bears by humans and human land use have been crucial factors. ...> Full Article

Tiny DNA Molecules Show Liquid Crystal Phases, Pointing Up New Scenario For First Life On Earth (11/26/2007)

A team has discovered some unexpected forms of liquid crystals of ultrashort DNA molecules immersed in water, providing a new scenario for a key step in the emergence of life on Earth. ...> Full Article

Bioclocks work by controlling chromosome coiling (11/26/2007)

There is a new twist on the question of how biological clocks work. ...> Full Article

Researchers has identified a gene for the ability to smell the odor of sweat (11/25/2007)

Some people are oblivious to the odor in the locker room after a game, while others wrinkle their noses at the slightest whiff of sweat. Research by Prof. ...> Full Article

Researchers Discover that a Handshake Could Signal High Quality Genes (11/24/2007)

Handgrip strength is an important measure of health and reproductive fitness. ...> Full Article

Flip-Flopping Gene Expression Can Be Advantageous (11/22/2007)

One gene for pea pod color generates green pods while a variant of that gene gives rise to the yellow-pod phenotype, a feature that helped Gregor Mendel, the 19th century Austrian priest and scientist, first describe genetic inheritance. However, many modern-day geneticists are focused on the strange ability of some genes to be expressed spontaneously in either of two possible ways. ...> Full Article

Should I eat the kids? When to care for, abandon, or eat your offspring (11/22/2007)

It is difficult to see how filial cannibalism, the consumption of one's own offspring, can be an adaptive evolutionary strategy. It is, however, common in many animals, and surprisingly is often coupled with parental care. ...> Full Article

Like father, like son: attractiveness is hereditary (11/21/2007)

Sexy dads produce sexy sons, in the insect world at least. While scientists already knew that specific attractive traits, from cricket choruses to peacocks' tails, are passed on to their offspring, the heritability of attractiveness as a whole is more contentious. Now, new research by the University of Exeter, published in the journal Current Biology, shows that attractiveness is hereditary. ...> Full Article

New Evidence For Female Control In Reproduction (11/21/2007)

Adding another layer of competition to the mating game, scientists are reporting possible biochemical proof that the reproductive system of female mammals can "sense" the presence of sperm and react to it by changing the uterine environment. This may be the molecular mechanism behind post-copulatory sexual selection, in which females that have mated with several partners play a role in determining which sperm fertilizes their egg. ...> Full Article

Evolution Is Deterministic, Not Random, Biologists Conclude From Multi-Species Study (11/20/2007)

A multi-national team of biologists has concluded that developmental evolution is deterministic and orderly, rather than random, based on a study of different species of roundworms. ...> Full Article

Gene In Male Fish Lures Females Into Sex (11/19/2007)

A gene has been found in male cichlid fish that evolved to lure female fish so that male cichlids can deposit sperm in the females mouths. A study in the online open access journal BMC Biology reveals that the gene is associated with egg-like markings on the fins of cichlid fishes and uncovers the evolutionary history of these markings, which are central to the success of the fishes' exotic oral mating behaviour. ...> Full Article

'Time-sharing' birds key to evolutionary mystery (11/19/2007)

Whereas most birds are sole proprietors of their nests, some tropical species "time share" together - a discovery that helps clear up a 150-year-old evolutionary mystery. ...> Full Article

Parasites might spur evolution of strange amphibian breeding habits (11/18/2007)

Parasites can decimate amphibian populations, but one researcher believes they might also play a role in spurring the evolution of new and sometimes bizarre breeding strategies. ...> Full Article

Genetic technology reveals how poisonous mushrooms cook up toxins (11/18/2007)

Researchers discover remarkably small genes that produce mushroom toxin - a unique pathway previously unknown in fungi. ...> Full Article

Fruit fly study advances genetics (11/17/2007)

The humble fruit fly has played a lead role on the scientific stage for more than a century. Tiny picnic pests to us, flies from a single species, Drosophila melanogaster, have provided a bounty of Nobel Prize-winning discoveries for researchers in the fields of genetics and developmental biology, and helped serve as models of human diseases such as Parkinson's and cancer. ...> Full Article

Simple reason helps males evolve more quickly (11/17/2007)

The observation that males evolve more quickly than females has been around since 19th century biologist Charles Darwin noted the majesty of a peacock's tail feather in comparison with the plainness of the peahen's. ...> Full Article

Evolutionary Biology Research on Plant Shows Significance of Maternal Effects (11/16/2007)

When habitat changes, animals migrate. But how do immobile organisms like plants cope when faced with alterations to their environment? This is an increasingly important question in light of new environmental conditions brought on by global climate change. ...> Full Article