The present theory offers a unified solution to three closely related evolutionary problems. (1) Why does an evolving population explore only a small fraction of the accessible pathways in genotype ...

Much of the phenotypic variation that is observed within and between species is the result of differences in gene regulation: specifically when, where and how much the genes are expressed. Given the ...

Biologists are closing in on a puzzle that seems to turn classic evolutionary logic inside out, yet may be so common that it ...

Elucidating the relationship between the sequences of non-coding regulatory elements and their target genes is key to understanding gene regulation and its variation between plant species and ecotypes ...

Many hidden genetic variations can be detected with Chameleolyser, a new method. The information is already yielding new patient diagnoses and may also lead to the discovery of as yet unknown disease ...

Birds have a dazzling display of patterns, from muted colors to vivid and striking hues. For a long time, scientists believed that the evolution of these traits was a slow process that took place when ...

CRISPR will get easier and easier to administer. What does that mean for the future of our species? In 2016, I attended a large meeting of journalists in Washington, DC. The keynote speaker was ...

Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine’s Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center and Human Genome Sequencing Center investigated the extent to which forms of genetic variation called germline or ...

For millennia, evolution has intrigued many great thinkers, prompting questions about how new traits emerge as species adapt over time. Then, attention shifted to natural selection and the inheritance ...

Conventional wisdom holds that sexual reproduction evolved because it enables organisms to shuffle, or recombine, different alleles (versions of a gene) in the next generation, producing the genetic ...