molecular biology

Evolution in a big city [video]

Posted 29 March 2012 by GrrlScientist

SUMMARY: Did you know evolution works on small time scales and in small areas? Using New York City’s newts, coyotes and mice as examples, we learn that animals develop genetic differences, even within urban parks Can DNA reveal where in a city that an animal comes from? To answer this question, Jason Munshi-South, an assistant professor in the department of natural sciences at CUNY’s Baruch College, looks at DNA of New York City’s native newts, coyotes and mice and finds... Read more

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Evolution of Hawai’ian honeycreepers

Posted 2 November 2011 by GrrlScientist

SUMMARY: Using a large DNA data set, researchers have identified the progenitor of Hawaiian honeycreepers and have linked their rapid evolution to the geological formation of the four main Hawaiian Islands Hawai’ian honeycreepers. A juvenile Laysan finch (center), and clockwise from the top: Hawai’i ‘akepa, Maui parrotbill, po’ouli, i’iwi, Maui ’alauahio and ʻakiapōlāʻau. [Cover, Current Biology, volume 21, issue 22 (8 November 2011)]. Image: H. Douglas Pratt [velociraptorise]. In the middle of the Pacific Ocean, thousands of kilometres away from... Read more

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Jumping genes capture deep relationships between parrots and songbirds

Posted 23 August 2011 by GrrlScientist

SUMMARY: A new study adds support to two earlier reports that songbirds and parrots are each other’s closest relatives (Psittacopasserae), indicating that vocal learning abilities appeared in this group of birds 30 million years earlier than originally assumed Passerines and parrots share a common ancestor as well as the ability to learn vocalization. Vocal learning may have evolved 30 million years earlier than previously thought. Image: Corn bunting, Miliaria calandra. Kriegs/LWL (with permission) [velociraptorise] DOI: 10.1038/ncomms1448 Birds share many characteristics... Read more

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Why are there so many bird species in the tropics?

Posted 18 August 2011 by GrrlScientist

SUMMARY: What can we learn about evolution, geography and biodiversity by studying continental patterns of speciation? Red knot, Calidris canutus rufa, at Mispillion Harbor, Delaware (USA). This species winters in Argentina and makes an epic migration through North America to its Palearctic breeding grounds. NOTE: This image has been cropped from the original. Image: Greg Breese/USFWS, 2 June 2008 (Public Domain) [velociraptorise]. Since before the time of dinosaurs, species diversity is related to latitude. Basically, species richness increases as distance... Read more

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The Central Dogma of molecular biology

Posted 5 January 2011 by GrrlScientist

Hypothesis: DNA makes RNA makes protein … the Central Dogma of molecular biology. This video captures the beauty of “The Central Dogma” of molecular biology, which is that “DNA makes RNA makes protein”. (For you twitter fiends, this translates as “DNA>RNA>protein”.) This nicely executed animation describes how proteins act similarly to “molecular machines” to copy, or transcribe, specific genes in the DNA of every cell into small, portable RNA messages, how those messenger RNAs are modified and exported from the... Read more

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The Mystery of the Family That Walks on All Fours

Posted 22 August 2010 by GrrlScientist

Summary: This is a fascinating episode of Nova about the international scientists who investigated and helped a Turkish family where all the children suffer from a genetic mutation that causes them all to walk on all fours instead of upright. tags: The Mystery of the Family That Walks on All Fours, Nova, PBS, television, disability, birth defect, heritable mutation, inbreeding, genetics, molecular biology, neurobiology, developmental biology, streaming video This fascinating video is a complete episode of the American science program,... Read more

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Gender-Bending Chickens: Mixed, Not Scrambled

Posted 12 March 2010 by GrrlScientist

SUMMARY: Sexual identity is genetically imposed on male and female chicken cells at fertilization and is the major factor in determining the adult sexual phenotype — gonads have limited effects on the avian sexual phenotype. This fascinating finding is prompting a reassessment of our understanding of the evolution of sex determination. tags: evolution, evolutionary biology, gynandromorph, bilateral gynandromorph bird, half-sider, mixed-sex chimaera, sex determination, molecular biology, genetics, developmental biology, endocrinology, birds, chicken, Gallus gallus, ornithology, bpr3.org/?p=52,peer-reviewed research, peer-reviewed paper, journal... Read more

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