The DNA mutations that drive evolution are generally thought to be fairly random, but a new study suggests there’s some order to the chaos. Comparing the genomes of hundreds of plants grown in a lab, ...

For a long time, evolutionary biologists have thought that the genetic mutations that drive the evolution of genes and proteins are largely neutral: they're neither good nor bad, but just ordinary ...

An unprecedented amount of genomic sequence data is accumulating in real-time during the COVID-19 pandemic. Over 1.2 million sequences of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) ...

In the children’s game telephone, a whispered phrase like “I ate a pear” can quickly become “I hate bears” as it moves down a line of players. As genes are passed down from parents to offspring, they ...

In a recent study published in Nature Genetics, researchers performed an allelic-level single-cellular multi-omics evaluation of hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells (HSPCs) obtained from individuals ...

Researchers have identified how the bacterium that causes tuberculosis (TB) can evolve rapidly in response to new environments. Researchers have identified how the bacterium that causes tuberculosis ...

The latest pandemic threat, Omicron, raises contrasting theories. If change is inevitable, then the recent spat of viruses only reminds us that we were too comfortable in our previous lives. We should ...

How we humans became what we are today is a question that scientists have been trying to answer for a long time. How did we evolve such advanced cognitive abilities, giving rise to complex language, ...

Researchers have identified evolutionary hotspots in DNA where mutations are more likely. The study authors say these findings will help us in the future to predict the evolution of bacteria and ...