#Genes

A few weeks ago we looked at a simulation of technological evolution by economist Brian Arthur, in which he was able to start with simple building blocks (such as a NAND gate) and evolve surprisingly complex circuits (such as a 12-way AND gate or a 4-bit…

Live Science spoke with Alika Maunakea, an Native Hawaiian epigeneticist, about how epigenetics underpins health disparities between Native Hawaiians and others in Hawaii.

Evolutionary biologists are uncovering genomic mechanisms that allow populations to adapt quickly to different, hyperlocal habitats without splitting into new species.

Rising temperatures drive a quarter of recent growth in resistant Salmonella genes, while microplastics create biofilms that speed horizontal transfer of resistance. New studies link these environmental factors to the accelerating superbug threat.…

Rising temperatures drive a quarter of recent growth in resistant Salmonella genes, while microplastics create biofilms that speed horizontal transfer of resistance. New studies link these environmental factors to the accelerating superbug threat.…

Most major crops, such as wheat and corn, require expensive nitrogen fertilizer to flourish. But what if bacteria could help those plants draw nitrogen from the atmosphere, as peas and beans do?

Generations of “sociobiologists” have tried and failed to argue that genetic analysis offers the key to understanding social inequality. A new book fares no better.

Pioneering and controversial geneticist who was one of the first to sequence the human genome, in part by using his own DNA

Stevia is a widely used sweetener, but why do some stevia varieties taste cleaner and more sugar-like than others? Recent research conducted at the University of Toyama shows that stevia's sweetness is genetically linked to variations in specific…

Scientists at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, have uncovered a crucial trick used by enteroviruses—the group behind diseases like polio, myocarditis, encephalitis, and even the common cold—to reproduce inside human cells.…

As blood stem cells age, their lysosomes become overactive and damaged, triggering inflammation and weakening the body’s ability to regenerate healthy blood and immune cells.…

Scientists studying axolotls, zebrafish, and mice have uncovered a shared set of genes that may one day help humans regrow lost limbs. By identifying powerful “SP genes” involved in regeneration, researchers discovered that disabling these genes stopped…

A surprising genetic twist shows that boosting a seemingly ordinary “housekeeping” gene can dramatically improve fruit quality without any trade-offs.…

A team of scientists from Berlin analyzed water and sediment samples from six water bodies in Berlin and the adjacent federal states of Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, as well as the inflow and outflow of a wastewater treatment plant in…

Millions of tons of plastic waste accumulate in landfills and oceans every year. One promising response is to engineer microbes to break the plastic down into useful chemical building blocks.…

A tendency to aggression and antisocial behaviour is encoded in certain people’s DNA, argues Kathryn Paige Harden — and it could have profound...

When a gene is turned on in a cell, it creates a ripple effect along the DNA strand, changing the physical structure of the strand. A new study by MIT researchers, appearing in Science, shows that these ripples can stimulate or suppress neighboring genes.…

How do our genes determine our appearance and our susceptibility to disease? This question is central to biomedical research, and today we can sequence thousands of human genomes to identify these genes. However, genes work in complex networks.

According to new research, many thousands of years of farming seem to have had a strange effect on our noses.

A clinical trial to reverse age-related vision conditions using stem cell treatment could finally deliver on the promise of a major discovery in ageing and regeneration made 20 years ago, says columnist Graham Lawton