Tag: genetic

New species are more likely to evolve in areas where few already exist

It has long been thought that new species are most likely to evolve in biodiversity hotspots like the Amazon rainforest, but a genetic analysis of birds suggests that extreme environments where few species exist help drive evolution Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2262570-new-species-are-more-likely-to-evolve-in-areas-where-few-already-exist/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…

Gene therapy injected in one eye can travel to the other eye

In one form of gene therapy to treat loss of sight, a virus containing genetic material injected in one eye has now been shown to travel into the untreated eye Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2262327-gene-therapy-injected-in-one-eye-can-travel-to-the-other-eye/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…

Evidence Builds That an Early Mutation Made the Pandemic Harder to Stop

As the coronavirus swept across the world, it picked up random alterations to its genetic sequence. Like meaningless typos in a script, most of those mutations made no difference in how the virus behaved. But one mutation near the beginning of the pandemic did make a difference, multiple new findings suggest, helping the virus spread more easily from person to person…