A study of the mitochondrial DNA of the common wall lizard shows that their spread from Italy into southeastern Europe was probably aided by human influence.
Proceeding from a concept called the proto-metabolism hypothesis, geneticists at the University College London (UCL) provide a new framework for the origin of the genetic code in protocells growing by CO2 fixation.
It is estimated that there are from 10 to 100 virus particles for every living cell, making viruses the most abundant biological entities on Earth.
In a guest editorial in the prestigious American journal, Science, the head of the University of Edinburgh argues that the British withdrawal from the European Union (EU) caused a partial collapse of the “collaborative ecosystem of research and innovation.”
Researchers in the U.S., United Kingdom and Australia have found 27 additional proteins that may help identify individuals who are at risk for Alzheimer’s in middle age or earlier.
About 20% of all deaths worldwide are due to severe sepsis, the poisoning of the blood by infectious microorganisms. Fungal-induced sepsis, particularly that caused by the yeast Candida albicans, is the most lethal form, accounting for 5% of all microbial sepsis deaths.
Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine have published new research showing that a species of bacteria which infects fruit flies is capable of introducing parts of its genetic material into that of the fruit fly.
The mitochondria are organelles within the cells of all eukaryotic organisms that produce the energy to fuel the cells.
Eukaryotes are organisms whose cells have a separate nucleus containing the genetic material, a protein-transcribing apparatus in the cytoplasm and energy-producing organelles such as mitochondria.
SARS CoV-2 viral protein is detected in fecal samples of up to 50% of people diagnosed with Covid-19, even when the nasopharyngeal swab test proves negative. However, the role of intestinal infection in Covid-19 disease progression remains to be clarified.
A new simulation by researchers at Israel’s Weizmann Institute shows how life could have originally evolved from simple fatty molecules known as micelles into self-reproducing structures capable of evolving to more complex forms.
A new study of the hematological (blood cell) traits found in two different populations of isolated villagers in Greece sheds new light on blood disorders, including sickle cell anemia and thalassemia.
An international team of plant biologists and geneticists from Germany, the United States, Sweden, and France have found evidence overturning the commonly held assumption that mutations are entirely random across the genome.
How does the cell, the building block of all living organisms, “know” how to arrange its internal parts and fit itself into an overall body plan?
A collaboration between the Weizmann Institute in Israel and Harvard University developed a mathematical model to test the safety of a class of anti-viral drugs that accelerate the mutation rate of the virus, causing “death by mutagenesis.”
Proteins are long coils of amino acids, the building blocks of life. They are produced when messenger RNA from the cell nucleus directs the ribosomes to link specified aminos acids together in a defined sequence.
Eukaryotes have a distinct cell nucleus that contains one set of genes (DNA), and another entity known as the mitochondrion, that contains its own unique genes. Mitochondria are the cellular hubs for energy production and much of metabolism.
The human brain is 238% larger than any other primate of similar body mass. How evolution brought about this situation has been a focus of physical anthropologists for more a century.