A review article published in “Nature Reviews Genetics” brings together evolutionary theory, comparative genomics and large-scale human genetics to explain why we age and why ageing rates differ among individuals and species. The two authors—from the Leibniz Institute on Aging (FLI) in Jena and University College London in London—describe how, because modern humans now routinely survive into old age, we live with the late-life consequences of biological pathways that natural selection optimized for youth, and of harmful mutations that act too late in life for selection to clear them efficiently. It points to shared genetic causes and conserved therapeutic targets….

• Fruit first, fancy footwork later: A new study finds the courtship dances of the manakins – one of the most charismatic groups of birds on Earth – trace back to changes deep in their ancestry and may be linked to their fruit-rich diet. • Same answer, different routes: Manakins re-evolved a sense of sweet taste, as hummingbirds, songbirds and woodpeckers each did separately, by repurposing the receptor for savory taste. • Genome-enabled discovery: Manakins are one of the most intensively-studied groups of birds: this first set of genomes provides resources to the community to explore the genomic changes underlying…

How does evolution move from conventional sexual reproduction to asexuality without males? A new study by researchers from the Universities of Lausanne, Lund and Rostock reveals that this remarkable transition can occur gradually, through intermediate evolutionary steps rather than in a single leap. Quelle: IDW Informationsdienst Wissenschaft

A new study by scientists from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW), has revealed significant cryptic diversity within two-toed sloths (Choloepus) in Amazonia, challenging the long-established taxonomy of the genus. This international effort involved key South American collaborators. Utilizing the first genome-wide dataset from multiple two-toed sloth populations, the study published in the journal “Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution” provides critical new evidence that past environmental changes shaped the sloths’ evolutionary history, and highlights an urgent need for taxonomic revision and updated conservation assessment and strategies. Quelle: IDW Informationsdienst Wissenschaft Hier jetzt das aktuell Außergewöhnliche auswählen …

Photosynthetic bacteria helped shape Planet Earth. Among them are cyanobacteria that produced the oxygen in our atmosphere and made complex life possible, captivating scientists for decades. Now, researchers at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) report a surprising new discovery—a system thought to separate DNA has developed to sculpt the shape of the cell in cyanobacteria instead. The results, published in Science, shed light on how protein systems evolve and how multicellularity emerged in this type of ecologically essential bacteria. Quelle: IDW Informationsdienst Wissenschaft Hier jetzt das aktuell Außergewöhnliche auswählen …

A new study reveals how diet shapes inherited behaviour. A team of researchers from the Department of Integrative Evolutionary Biology at the Max Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen has discovered that vitamin B12 plays a key role in transmitting behavioural memories across generations. The study shows for the first time how a nutrient from the diet can, without altering the genome, influence behaviour over multiple generations. Quelle: IDW Informationsdienst Wissenschaft Hier jetzt das aktuell Außergewöhnliche auswählen …

In an unprecedented field experiment, an international research team led by Goethe University Frankfurt, the University of California, Berkeley, and CNRS Montpellier investigated the evolutionary adaptation of thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana) to a wide range of climates, from the Alps to the Negev Desert. At 30 locations worldwide, team members sowed the plants, monitored their development, and analyzed genetic changes. The result: many Arabidopsis populations rapidly adapted to local climates – some, however, went extinct. The findings demonstrate how genetic diversity ensures population survival. Quelle: IDW Informationsdienst Wissenschaft Hier jetzt das aktuell Außergewöhnliche auswählen …

Cancer is a group of almost 200 diseases that involve variety of changes in cell structure, morphology, and physiology. Cancer phenotype is underlying several alterations in cellular dynamics with three most critical features, which includes self-sufficiency in growth signals and insensitivity to inhibitory signals, evasion of programmed cell death and limitless replicative potential with a potential for the invasion of other organs. Cancer disease is widespread among metazoans. Some properties of cancer cells such as uncontrolled cell proliferation, lack of apoptosis, hypoxia, fermentative metabolism and free cell motility, i.e. metastasis, resemble a prokaryotic lifestyle, which leads to the assumption of…

Progressive increase in mtDNA 3243A>G heteroplasmy causes abrupt transcriptional reprogramming Wallace hypothesized mitochondrial dysfunction as a central role in a wide range of age-related disorders and various forms of cancer. Steadily rising increases in mitochondrial DNA mutations cause abrupt shifts in diseases. Discrete changes in nuclear gene expression in response to small increases in DNA mutant level are analogous to the phase shifts that is well known in physics: As heat is added, the ice abruptly turns to water or with more heat abruptly to steam. Therefore, a quantitative change that is an increasing proportion of mitochondrial DNA mutation results…

Daniel Smeets, Yolanda Markaki, Volker J Schmid, Felix Kraus, Anna Tattermusch, Andrea Cerase, Michael Sterr, Susanne Fiedler, Justin Demmerle, Jens Popken, Heinrich Leonhardt, Neil Brockdorff, Thomas Cremer1, Lothar Schermelleh and Marion Cremer Abstract Background A Xist RNA decorated Barr body is the structural hallmark of the compacted inactive X territory in female mammals. Using super-resolution three-dimensional structured illumination microscopy (3D-SIM) and quantitative image analysis, we compared its ultrastructure with active chromosome territories (CTs) in human and mouse somatic cells, and explored the spatio-temporal process of Barr body formation at onset of inactivation in early differentiating mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs)….