Articles tagged Genetics Journal
(341 results)

Choosing a mate is hardly random. During courtship in the diploid phase of our life cycle, we often employ elaborate rituals and biological signals to attract and assess potential mates. But after that, we usually assume that eggs and sperm choose each other randomly at fertilization. Or so says Mendel’s First Law. But sometimes, Joseph…

Check out the December issue of GENETICS by looking at the highlights or the full table of contents! ISSUE HIGHLIGHTS Gene Conversion Facilitates Adaptive Evolution on Rugged Fitness Landscapes, pp. 1577–1589 Philip Bittihn and Lev S. Tsimring An important question in evolutionary theory is how adaptation might be hindered on a rugged fitness landscape in the presence of strong selection that…

When you catch a nasty cold, curling up in bed to sleep may be the only activity you can manage. Sleeping in response to stress isn’t a uniquely human behavior: many other animals have the same reaction, and it’s not clear why. While the circadian sleep that follows the pattern of the clock has been…

Check out the November issue of GENETICS by looking at the highlights or the full table of contents! ISSUE HIGHLIGHTS Ethanol stimulates locomotion via a Gas-signalling pathway in IL2 neurons in Caenorhabditis elegans, pp. 1023–1039 James R. Johnson, Mark R. Edwards, Huw Davies, Daniel Newman, Whitney Holden, Rosalind E. Jenkins, Robert D. Burgoyne, Robert J. Lucas, and Jeff W. Barclay Alcohol…

Check out the October issue of GENETICS by looking at the highlights or the full table of contents! ISSUE HIGHLIGHTS Rhythmic behavior is controlled by the SRm160 splicing factor in Drosophila melanogaster, pp. 593–607 Esteban J. Beckwith, Carlos E. Hernando, Sofía Polcowñuk, Agustina P. Bertolin, Estefania Mancini, M. Fernanda Ceriani, and Marcelo J. Yanovsky Animals have evolved neural circuits that allow…

The unassuming fruit fly has paved the way for another big scientific win: on October 2nd, the Nobel Assembly awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash, and Michael W. Young for their discoveries of the molecular mechanisms behind circadian rhythms. These biologists have spent their careers studying…

It’s surprisingly common for babies to be born missing one or both kidneys; an estimated one in one thousand babies are born with a single kidney. Called renal agenesis, this condition is fatal if both kidneys are missing, and having just one can also lead to serious health problems like hypertension and early renal failure.…

For many of the roughly 300 million people around the world with rare diseases, the road to diagnosis can be long, painful, expensive, and disheartening. Around eighty percent of very infrequently seen undiagnosed diseases are estimated to have a genetic basis, but even with modern DNA sequencing techniques, the causes are often unclear. In these…

There’s no such thing as an obese plant. But that doesn’t mean plants can’t teach us something about fat. In the September issue of GENETICS, Ducos et al. show that a protein that controls fat accumulation in humans has a similar function in Arabidopsis. They also find that the human and plant proteins may be…

Check out the September issue of GENETICS by looking at the highlights or the full table of contents! ISSUE HIGHLIGHTS MicroRNAs that contribute to coordinating the immune response in Drosophila melanogaster, pp. 163-178 Magda L. Atilano, Marcus Glittenberg, Annabel Monteiro, Richard R. Copley, and Petros Ligoxygakis Atilano et al. present a Drosophila post-infection survival screen that takes advantage of a library…

After surviving breast cancer, almost forty percent of female patients are affected by primary ovarian insufficiency (POI). This condition, in which ovaries don’t produce normal amounts of hormones or release eggs regularly, can result in health problems and an inability to have children. But POI isn’t caused by cancer itself—the actual culprit is DNA damage…