Articles tagged Fundamental Research
(123 results)

Shrub rich in potentially anticancer and antimalarial cardenolide compounds is sequenced in search of biosynthetic pathways. The giant milkweed Calotropis gigantea, a flowering shrub that can grow to 13 feet tall, produces a multitude of chemicals that have possible anticancer and antimalarial properties. A new Genome Report published in G3 describes the plant’s genome, providing…

Consider the papercut—a minor injury best known for the disproportionate amount of pain it can cause. That a wound so inconsequential can sting so terribly is curious, but perhaps even more surprising is the fact that it heals at all. To heal a wound, even one as trivial as a papercut, the cells involved in…

Beer, doughnuts, and genetics textbooks have one thing in common: they were all made possible by collaborations between humans and yeast. Our fungal ally Saccharomyces cerevisiae resides not only in breweries, bakeries, and laboratories, but also sometimes in our own bodies—where, on rare occasions, it betrays us. S. cerevisiae is increasingly being reported as an…

Archaeologists have long known how to extract millennia-old stories from a single tooth buried in an ancient ruin—and now geneticists have the tools to join them. Advances made in the last several years have enabled researchers to sequence tiny amounts of DNA preserved in very old specimens, such as the material inside a tooth from…

The fastest-evolving genes in eukaryotes commonly encode reproductive proteins—and the rate at which genes for male reproductive proteins change, in particular, often vastly outstrips the rate of change across the genome as a whole. A recent paper in G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics describes an unusual exception: the amino acid sequences of the most abundant sperm proteins in…

The Genetics Society of America (GSA) is pleased to announce that Job Dekker of the University of Massachusetts Medical School is the recipient of the 2018 Edward Novitski Prize. The award honors investigators who have exhibited “an extraordinary level of creativity and intellectual ingenuity in the solution of significant problems in genetics research.” Dekker, a…

Whether it’s a battle over territory or a brawl over a sports game, aggressive behavior is a hallmark of the animal kingdom. The influence genetics has on aggression is undeniable—but the process of determining the genes involved has been frustratingly slow. To better understand genetic factors involved in aggression, some researchers have turned to male…

The Genetics Society of America (GSA) is pleased to announce that Barbara Meyer is the recipient of the 2018 Thomas Hunt Morgan Medal, which is awarded for lifetime achievement in genetics. This honor is given in recognition of her groundbreaking work on chromosome behaviors that govern gene expression, development, and heredity. Meyer’s studies of how…

The Genetics Society of America (GSA) is pleased to announce that Professor Mariana Wolfner of the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics at Cornell University is the recipient of the 2018 Genetics Society of America Medal for her work on reproduction. Wolfner and her colleagues have identified proteins in the seminal fluid of fruit flies…

When a noni fruit ripens, it stinks like old cheese—or even vomit. Familiar to many in the form of expensive juices sold as health supplements, this pungent fruit is engaged in a slow-motion arms race with would-be insect pests. Fruit flies are unable to feast on noni—scientific name Morinda citrifolia—because the fruit is dosed with…

Mutations that disrupt the gene BRCA2 dramatically increase the odds of developing breast and ovarian cancer—but such mutations aren’t enough to cause cancer on their own. To turn normal cells cancerous, some of BRCA2’s genetic interactors must also mutate. In an article recently published in GENETICS, Ding et al. sought to identify some of these genes.…