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 ...

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 ...

A groundbreaking study published in this week’s issue of PNAS by scientists from Israel and Ghana shows that an evolutionarily significant mutation in the human APOL1 gene arises not randomly but more ...

What happens to the thousands of intestinal cells that have tumour-initiating DNA mutations? A study in mouse models shows that most are eliminated by strong negative selection, but those that survive ...

In simple terms: a mutation is a stable change in genetic sequence that can be copied when cells or viruses replicate. Most mutations have no detectable effect, some contribute to disease, and a small ...

A groundbreaking study published in PNAS by scientists from Israel and Ghana shows that an evolutionarily significant mutation in the human APOL1 gene arises not randomly but more frequently where it ...