A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by scientists from Israel and Ghana shows that an evolutionarily significant mutation in the human APOL1 gene arises not ...

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 ...

Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story: In the 1960s, Kimura’s neutral theory revolutionized molecular biology by arguing most DNA changes are random, not adaptive. A new study finds ...

Mitochondria are known as the body’s “energy factories,” and their function is essential for life. Inside mitochondria, a set of complexes called the oxidative phosphorylation (OxPhos) system ...

The model does not rely on the infinite sites approximation (that a specific mutation newly arises in only one cell at any instant) in contrast to related models. The results become increasingly ...

How do cells know what they should become as the body develops? Biological development depends crucially on spatial patterns: the lines that eventually give rise to segments, organs, or markings like ...

Biology has clever ways to mask the effects of potentially harmful gene mutations. Scientists are investigating how this ...

A major evolutionary theory says most genetic changes don’t really matter, but new evidence suggests that’s not true. Researchers found that helpful mutations happen surprisingly often. The twist is ...

Researchers published a new study, “Ongoing chromothripsis underpins osteosarcoma genome complexity and clonal evolution,” in Cell that they say solves the mystery of what drives the genomic ...

“Where are all the genetic cures?” asks Denis Noble, a frustrated biophysicist, Royal Society fellow and pioneer of the field of systems biology. “They don’t exist. Where will they be? They won’t ...