Evolutionary Biology News

May 14, 2024

Top Headlines

Persistent Strain of Cholera Defends Itself Against Forces of Change, Scientists Find

May 13, 2024 — A longstanding mystery about the strain of Vibrio cholerae (V. cholerae) responsible for the seventh global cholera pandemic is how this lineage has managed to out-compete other pathogenic variants. ...

Island Birds More Adaptable Than Previously Thought

May 13, 2024 — The researchers found that birds were more evolutionarily similar on smaller, more isolated islands than on larger, less remote places. The team had expected to find that forested areas had more numerous and more varied species of birds compared to ...

Like Dad and Like Mum...all in One Plant

May 13, 2024 — Scientists have established a system to generate clonal sex cells in tomato plants and used them to design the genomes of offspring. The fertilization of a clonal egg from one parent by a clonal sperm from another parent led to plants containing the ...

Cellular Activity Hints That Recycling Is in Our DNA

May 10, 2024 — Introns are perhaps one of our genome's biggest mysteries. They are DNA sequences that interrupt the sensible protein-coding information in your genes, and need to be 'spliced ...

Latest Headlines

updated 7:27pm EDT

Insights Into Protein Evolution

May 13, 2024 — A research team has unveiled a breakthrough in understanding how specific genetic sequences, known as pseudogenes, ...

New Sex-Determining Mechanism in African Butterfly Discovered

May 9, 2024 — In a study of a species of African butterfly, researchers have discovered a previously undescribed molecular mechanism of how the sex of an embryo is initially ...

Chimps Learn and Improve Tool-Using Skills Even as Adults, Study Finds

May 7, 2024 — Chimpanzees continue to learn and hone their skills well into adulthood, a capacity that might be essential for the evolution of complex and varied tool use, according to a new ...

AI Deciphers New Gene Regulatory Code in Plants and Makes Accurate Predictions for Newly Sequenced Genomes

Apr. 26, 2024 — Elucidating the relationship between the sequences of non-coding regulatory elements and their target genes is key to understanding gene regulation ...

Engineers Develop Innovative Microbiome Analysis Software Tools

May 7, 2024 — Engineers have developed two new graph-based computational tools for tracking genomic variation within ...

Limited Adaptability Makes Freshwater Bacteria Vulnerable to Climate Change

May 8, 2024 — Freshwater bacteria with small genomes frequently undergo prolonged periods of adaptive stagnation. Based on genomic analyses of samples from European lakes, researchers uncovered specific ...

Genomes of 'Star Algae' Shed Light on Origin of Plants

May 3, 2024 — Land plants cover the surface of our planet and often tower over us. They form complex bodies with multiple organs that consist of a broad range of cell types. Developing this morphological ...

Unlocking the Genetic Mysteries Behind Plant Adaptation: New Insights Into the Evolution of a Water-Saving Trait in the Pineapple Family (Bromeliaceae)

Apr. 30, 2024 — Researchers have achieved a breakthrough in understanding how genetic drivers influence the evolution of a specific photosynthesis mechanism in ...

Researchers Parse Oddity of Distantly Related Bats in Solomon Islands That Appear Identical

Apr. 30, 2024 — A study of body size in leaf-nosed bats of the Solomon Islands has revealed surprising genetic diversity among nearly indistinguishable species on ...

Surprising Evolutionary Pattern in Yeast Study

Apr. 26, 2024 — Research study reports intriguing findings made through innovative artificial intelligence analysis about yeasts -- small fungi that are key contributors to biotechnology, food production, and human ...

These Jacks-of-All-Trades Are Masters, Too: Yeast Study Helps Answer Age-Old Biology Question

Apr. 25, 2024 — The results suggest that internal -- not external -- factors are the primary drivers of variation in the types of carbon yeasts can eat, and the researchers found no evidence that metabolic ...

Curiosity Promotes Biodiversity

Apr. 25, 2024 — Cichlid fishes exhibit differing degrees of curiosity. The cause for this lies in their genes, as reported by researchers. This trait influences the cichlids' ability to adapt to new ...

Color Variants in Cuckoos: The Advantages of Rareness

Apr. 24, 2024 — Every cuckoo is an adopted child -- raised by foster parents, into whose nest the cuckoo mother smuggled her egg. The cuckoo mother is aided in this subterfuge by her resemblance to a bird of prey. ...

How Parasites Shape Complex Food Webs

Apr. 24, 2024 — A new study sheds light on how parasites, often overlooked, can dramatically affect the balance between predator and prey populations. Researchers developed a groundbreaking mathematical framework ...

Scientists Unveil Genetics Behind Development of Gliding

Apr. 24, 2024 — Researchers explain the genomic and developmental basis of the patagium, the thin skin membrane that allows some mammalian species to soar through the ...

Bioluminescence First Evolved in Animals at Least 540 Million Years Ago

Apr. 23, 2024 — Bioluminescence first evolved in animals at least 540 million years ago in a group of marine invertebrates called octocorals, according to the results of a new study. The study focuses on an ancient ...

Marine Microbial Populations: Potential Sensors of the Global Change in the Ocean

Apr. 18, 2024 — Animal and plant populations have been extensively studied, which has helped to understand ecosystem processes and evolutionary adaptations. However, this has not been the case with microbial ...

RNA's Hidden Potential: New Study Unveils Its Role in Early Life and Future Bioengineering

Apr. 18, 2024 — The origin of life continues to remain a matter of debate. The ribonucleic acid (RNA) world hypothesis proposes that 'ribozymes' which store genetic information and possess catalytic ...

Mountain Chickadees Have Remarkable Memories. A New Study Explains Why

Apr. 17, 2024 — Mountain chickadees have among the best spatial memory in the animal kingdom. New research identifies the genes at play and offers insight into how a shifting climate may impact the evolution of this ...

New Butterfly Species Created 200,000 Years Ago by Two Species Interbreeding

Apr. 17, 2024 — Researchers have shown that an Amazonian butterfly is a hybrid species, formed by two other species breeding together almost 200,000 years ago. Researchers have shown that an Amazonian butterfly is a ...

Reproductive Success Improves After a Single Generation in the Wild for Descendants of Some Hatchery-Origin Chinook Salmon

Apr. 16, 2024 — Researchers who created 'family trees' for nearly 10,000 fish found that first-generation, wild-born descendants of hatchery-origin Chinook salmon in an Oregon river show improved ...

Seed Ferns: Plants Experimented With Complex Leaf Vein Networks 201 Million Years Ago

Apr. 16, 2024 — According to a research team led by palaeontologists, the net-like leaf veining typical for today's flowering plants developed much earlier than previously thought, but died out again several ...

Twisted Pollen Tubes Induce Infertility

Apr. 16, 2024 — Plants with multiple sets of chromosomes, known as polyploids, are salt-tolerant or drought-resistant and often achieve higher yields. However, newly formed polyploid plants are often sterile or have ...

Millions of Gamers Advance Biomedical Research

Apr. 15, 2024 — 4.5 million gamers around the world have advanced medical science by helping to reconstruct microbial evolutionary histories using a minigame included inside the critically and commercially ...

Evolution's Recipe Book: How 'Copy Paste' Errors Cooked Up the Animal Kingdom

Apr. 15, 2024 — A series of whole genome and gene duplication events that go back hundreds of millions of years have laid the foundations for tissue-specific gene expression, according to a new study. The ...

How Seaweed Became Multicellular

Apr. 12, 2024 — A deep dive into macroalgae genetics has uncovered the genetic underpinnings that enabled macroalgae, or 'seaweed,' to evolve multicellularity. Three lineages of macroalgae developed ...

Oxidant Pollutant Ozone Removes Mating Barriers Between Fly Species

Apr. 11, 2024 — Researchers show that ozone levels, such as those found in many places on hot summer days today, destroy the sex pheromones of fruit fly species. As a result, some natural mating boundaries ...

Geobiology: New Placozoan Habitat Discovered

Apr. 11, 2024 — Traces of DNA in the stomachs of predatory snails give a team og geobiologists new insights into the ecology of ...

3D Mouth of an Ancient Jawless Fish Suggests They Were Filter-Feeders, Not Scavengers or Hunters

Apr. 10, 2024 — Early jawless fish were likely to have used bony projections surrounding their mouths to modify the mouth's shape while they collected food. Experts have used CT scanning techniques to build up ...

Birdfeeders Are Designed to Keep Unwanted Guests Away

Apr. 9, 2024 — The first birdfeeders were made in the 19th century, and their design rapidly evolved during the 20th century. Researchers at the consider the evolution of the birdfeeder to be an example of ...