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The Allied Genetics Conference was an experiment for the GSA. We brought together under one roof seven separate research community meetings: C. elegans, ciliate, Drosophila, mouse, yeast, zebrafish, and population, evolutionary, and quantitative genetics. Today we are launching another experiment, this time, to communicate results presented at the meeting. Thanks to a generous grant from the…

Sex chromosomes have evolved from autosomes hundreds of times across the tree of life. In mammals, sex is controlled by the Y chromosome-linked gene SRY, which triggers the development of male anatomy. Sex determination in most mammals is extremely conserved; essentially all marsupials and placental mammals share the same pair of X and Y chromosomes…

Guest post by Shruthi Vembar. GSA-Art features the creative works of scientists. Read more in GSA President Stan Fields’ call for submissions. If you would like to submit your own work or nominate someone else’s, please send an email to GenesToGenomes@genetics-gsa.org with “GSA-Art” in the subject line. Madhubani painting, also known as Mithila painting, is an art form that originated in Northern…

To the unaided eye, Antarctic soil and alpine glaciers may appear to be barren wastelands devoid of life. But some microbes call hostile habitats like these home. Research on one such organism, published in the latest issue of G3, reveals some of the mechanisms behind cold adaptation—and explains why these otherwise hardy creatures can’t survive…

Guest post by Bonny Brewer. GSA-Art features the creative works of scientists. Read more in GSA President Stan Fields’ call for submissions. If you would like to submit your own work or nominate someone else’s, please send an email to GenesToGenomes@genetics-gsa.org with “GSA-Art” in the subject line. I have been in love with DNA for as long as I can remember.…

Dear President-elect Trump, It’s me again. I wrote you last week to say why you should make science a cornerstone of your administration. Don’t feel bad that with all the hubbub of starting up your new job, you haven’t had a chance to get back to me yet. But as I’ve read about some of…

Given the outcome of the US presidential election, some of our members have asked us if they should fear an erosion of federal support for research funding. Others have asked more pointed questions, such as: What is the GSA doing to defend the interests of geneticists? Young scientists, they’ve told us, are now even more…

Dear President-elect Trump, Congratulations on your victory. As a fellow president myself (albeit with a much smaller constituency), I can remember well those early post-election days, when the surge of heady enthusiasm for all those things I hoped to accomplish had not yet been eroded by the practicalities of actually governing. But as a geneticist…

Like any revolutionary technology, domestic horses changed human society. The incredible speed and strength of these animals opened up new opportunities to spread trade, language, and culture. For thousands of years, horses have been helping build human society by pulling wagons and plows and carrying soldiers and travelers on their backs. Horse husbandry changed humanity,…

GSA-Art features the creative works of scientists. Read more in GSA President Stan Fields’ call for submissions. If you would like to submit your own work or nominate someone else’s, please send an email to GenesToGenomes@genetics-gsa.org with “GSA-Art” in the subject line. Biswapriya Misra is a postdoc in the Department of Genetics at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute. He loves cooking and…

I’m a total sucker for new methods. I couldn’t wait to try out Trans-Helical Illumination (THI), in which low intensity lasers prime conversion of helical proteins. The potential of Synthetically Integrative Sensor Neurons (SISN) to probe brain subregion function is inspiring. Closer to my own heart, we have high hopes that Optical Wavelength Assembly of…