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Featured
On the cover: Daphnia in the spotlight
Illuminating the cover of the May issue of G3 is a lake-dwelling filter feeder no more than a couple millimeters long. This microcrustacean—Daphnia pulex, also known as the water flea—is an important model organism, especially in ecological genetics. But despite Daphnia’s status as a model organism, no one had examined its population genomics until now.…
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Microbial DNA repair goes nuclear
In the ruins of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant—an area deemed unsafe for humans for the next 20,000 years after a catastrophic failure—life thrives. Fungi that reside there, along with other organisms that can survive large radiation doses, must have strategies to cope with the DNA-damaging effects of living at a meltdown site. In the…
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Early Career Scientist Leadership Spotlight — Caitlin McDonough
We’re taking time over the following weeks to get to know the members of the GSA’s Early Career Scientist Committees. Join us every week to learn more about our early career scientist advocates. Caitlin McDonough Co-Chair, Career Development Subcommittee Syracuse University Research Interest: My motivation as a scientist is rooted…
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Cause of fatal naked foal syndrome revealed
When a horse is born with naked foal syndrome (NFS), it will likely die early. This genetic skin condition affects the Akhal-Teke horse breed from Turkmenistan, which is known for its speed, endurance, and intelligence. Worryingly, the incidence of NFS seems to be increasing. Although breeders have been aware of NFS for over 75 years,…
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Tools for transgenic studies in close relatives of D. melanogaster
Thanks to more than a hundred years of working with Drosophila melanogaster, geneticists have many powerful tools for precisely manipulating its genes. It has also become a model system for studying speciation and molecular evolution together with the other members of the melanogaster species group: D. simulans, D. mauritiana, D. yakuba, and D. santomea. However,…
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Twenty years of the Worm Art Show
In 1997, Ahna Skop approached her graduate advisor, John G. White, about adding a worm-themed art show to the International C. elegans Conference he was organizing that year. “He said I could do whatever I wanted, but not to involve him,” she recalls. That year marked the very first Worm Art Show, which has since…
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GSA Marches!
Yesterday, hundreds of thousands of scientists and science enthusiasts came out in force, rallying at more than 600 locations around the world to support robustly funded and publicly communicated science as a pillar of human freedom and prosperity. Many in the GSA community joined the March for Science, including a group at the Washington DC event, led by GSA President…
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Protein variance in tightly controlled developmental processes
Take two neighboring cells from the same tissue—cells that are about as identical as any could be. Despite their similarities, these two cells could actually vary massively in their transcriptome. The typical fate of an mRNA—the “transcript” in transcriptome—is to serve as a template to make a protein, but it isn’t clear that the differences…
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Live long and prosper (under the right conditions)
Restricting calorie intake seems to promote longer lives in a wide range of organisms, from microbes to mammals. Some determined youth-seekers are already adopting reduced-calorie diets in an attempt to extend their lifespans. But it’s not clear yet that these anti-aging effects apply to humans, and the mechanisms by which they work in other organisms…
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GSA / March for Science T-shirts now available!
GSA is an official partner of the March for Science—we hope you will join us in marching on Earth Day, April 22! You can now wear one of our fantastic new GSA March for Science T-shirts, available in two designs. All proceeds go to the non-profit, volunteer-run March for Science organization, supporting the major logistics costs…
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50 years of molecular evolution in Drosophila
In the genomic era, population geneticists are flooded with molecular data on the evolution of natural populations. This deluge started in 1966 as a trickle of data from protein electrophoresis studies, including the landmark GENETICS papers published by Richard Lewontin and John Hubby. As Lewontin is honored this week at the Annual Drosophila Research Conference…