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 ...

“Expression tells us what cells do, but regulatory DNA tells us where they come from, how they develop, and which germ layer ...

Tiny genetic variations between humans, Neanderthals and Denisovans might not be all they were cracked up to be.

Olfactory receptor (OR) genes, representing the largest multigene family in mammalian genomes, have undergone extensive evolutionary modifications characterised by dynamic patterns of gene duplication ...

A groundbreaking study has found that evolution is not as unpredictable as previously thought, which could allow scientists to explore which genes could be useful to tackle real-world issues such as ...

Gut bacteria rapidly adapt to processed food additives, revealing how modern diets can reshape microbial evolution worldwide.

One of the biggest quests in biology is understanding how every cell in an animal's body carries an identical genome yet ...

Woodrats weigh less than half a pound but can survive venomous rattlesnake bites that would hospitalize, or even kill, a full ...

The evolution of new genes is not the only way for a species to change. The loss of genes may also lead to adaptations that help species survive, but this idea has not been well studied. Now, ...

Researchers have used CRISPR to switch back on a gene that vanished from the human lineage roughly 20 million years ago, ...

For millennia, evolution has intrigued many great thinkers, prompting questions about how new traits emerge as species adapt over time. Then, attention shifted to natural selection and the inheritance ...

Genetic sharing among evolutionary neighbors all happens through hybrids: the offspring produced when individuals from two species mate. Famous hybrids include offspring between polar and grizzly ...