Enter your address to receive notifications about new posts to your email.
Featured
-
Featured
#Worm17 love
Every two years, the GSA is proud to support the C. elegans research community as they come together to share their science and their infectious enthusiasm. Last week, the 21st International C. elegans Conference enjoyed beautiful Los Angeles weather and an abundance of cutting-edge biology. For those missing their worm friends already, and for those who couldn’t make it…
-
Featured
The mouse lemur: a new genetic model organism
Palm fronds crunch under a researcher’s foot as she hikes through a rainforest in Madagascar looking for a spot to release a tiny, omnivorous ball of fur with bulging eyes—a mouse lemur. This creature, the smallest type of primate, is an important research subject: it has just yielded a blood sample, skin cells, and an…
-
Featured
Fido won’t fetch? Maybe it’s his pedigree
Whether a thunderclap drives your dog to cower behind the couch or leaves it unfazed may be determined in part by genetics. In the June issue of GENETICS, Ilska et al. analyze genetic contributors to canine personality traits—such as fear of loud noises—using owners’ reports of their pets’ behavior. The researchers chose this survey-based method…
-
Featured
Early Career Scientist Leadership Spotlight — Didem Sarikaya
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. Didem Sarikaya Co-chair, Career Development Subcommittee University of California, Davis Research Interest: I’m interested in understanding how…
-
Featured
Neural networks dive deep to locate proteins
As in real estate, so in cell biology: location is key. Knowing where a protein localizes in a cell gives insight into its function, and new research published in G3 describes a method to accurately identify a protein’s subcellular localization through high-throughput microscopy and machine learning. To determine a protein’s subcellular localization, researchers can tag…
-
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.…
-
Featured
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…
-
Featured
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…
-
Featured
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,…
-
Featured
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,…
-
Featured
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…