Tag: biology
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Father. Mother. Cosmos…
It was long thought that during an embryo's first cell division, one spindle is responsible for segregating the embryo's chromosomes into two cells. Scientists now show that there are actually two spindles, one for each set of parental chromosomes, meaning that the genetic information from each parent is kept apart throughout the first division. (1)…
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Deadly life…
A once-maligned genetic parasite may actually be essential for survival. Mouse embryos need that genetic freeloader — a type of jumping gene causing mutations, or transposon, called LINE-1 — to continue developing past the two-cell stage, researchers reported in Cell. Transposons certainly can hop into and break genes, and cells deploy numerous tools to prevent…
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Instability… Randomness… Out of design…
A study by researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University has brought science one step closer to a molecular-level understanding of how patterns form in living tissue. The researchers engineered bacteria that, when incubated and grown, exhibited stochastic Turing patterns: a…
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Mutations that lead to cancer: A major argument against evolution?
A research group has discovered a novel cancer-driving mutation in the vast non-coding regions of the human cancer genome, also known as the 'dark matter' of human cancer DNA. (1) Not a surprising result. Something inherently in opposition with the basic premise of modern evolutionary theory (that mutations generate new functions which - if persisted…
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Giant viruses. Evolution. New genes.
Three new members have been added to the Pandoravirus family. Researchers offer an explanation to their puzzling giant genomes with many orphan genes: pandoviruses appear to be factories for new genes - and therefore new functions. From freaks of nature to evolutionary innovators, giant viruses continue to shake branches on the tree of life! (1)…
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