Articles tagged Evolution
(105 results)

An opportunistic human pathogen makes itself at home on old oaks. At one point or another, most people have played host to the common yeast Candida albicans. Around 40-60% of healthy adults carry around it in their mouth or guts; in immunocompromised people, however, this normally harmless cohabitant becomes a deadly pathogen. Generally thought to…

Programmed ribosomal frameshifting has translational costs that may influence codon usage bias. The genetic code has some redundancy—the same amino acid is often encoded by several codons. However, these codons are not necessarily equal in their effect, as evidenced by the codon usage bias observed in many organisms. The translation efficiency hypothesis posits that some…

The recipient of the 2018 Crow Award reveals details of flu evolution at the smallest —and largest—scales. For many viral diseases, a vaccine can provide lifelong protection. But for flu, you need a new shot every year. The influenza virus evolves so fast it presents a constantly moving target for both our immune systems and…

Termites may have evolved sterile castes through hormone signaling changes in their cockroach ancestors. Eusocial insects, like ants, bees, and termites, have rigid caste systems: some individuals reproduce, while others are temporarily sterile workers or permanently sterile soldiers. This division of labor allows colonies to thrive, but the question remains:  how did these species evolve…

New genetic data help explain the rapid adaptation of stickleback fish that invaded freshwater habitats in the 1960s. In 1964, an earthquake shook the islands off the coast of Alaska, transforming the landscape as underwater terraces were thrust above the surface. From this cataclysmic event emerged a series of freshwater pools that became a natural…

Rapid genomic changes observed in Candida albicans soon after exposure to the oral cavity. Whether or not you treat your body like a temple, it presents a hostile and rapidly-changing environment for the many microorganisms that call you home. In contrast to the microbes that hang out inside humans, those that are cultured in the…

An evolutionary approach outperforms a design approach in modeling protein sequence variation. Over generations, evolution shapes proteins, leading to variation in their amino acid sequences both between and within species. Despite our ever-increasing knowledge of the physical constraints that guide protein structure, advanced modeling techniques don’t capture the site-specific variability observed in natural proteins. Bafflingly,…

Watch presentations from the conference, including talks from Katie Peichel and Jonathan Pritchard. Now that the dust has settled from the whirlwind of the first ever standalone GSA Population, Evolutionary, and Quantitative Genetics Conference (PEQG18), we’re delighted to be able to share the audio and synched slides from the Keynote and Crow Award sessions. We’re…

diploS/HIC uses machine learning to identify selective sweeps in unphased data. A set of footprints can tell us a lot about the creature that left them—without requiring us to see the creature itself. Footprints can suggest the animal’s size, weight, and stride, and from there, we can extrapolate even more information. Much like soft sand…

Attendees of the Population, Evolutionary, and Quantitative Genetics Conference are a creative bunch.  Inspired by one of the PEQG Bingo challenges, they bombarded Twitter with more than 50 #PEQG18 haikus (and one limerick), providing poetic snippets of the meeting to those who couldn’t make it. Joining the 17-syllable summaries were fantastic sketch notes of the meeting by…

Photosensitive alternative splicing of a malt fly circadian clock gene varies between northern and southern populations. Over the course of a day, most organisms undergo profound changes. Over the course of a season, the changes can be even more dramatic. For example, insects’ responses to the brisk nights and cooler days of fall and winter…