genomics – Quanta Magazine https://www.quantamagazine.org Illuminating science Mon, 16 Sep 2024 14:10:47 -0400 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.2 The Viral Paleontologist Who Unearths Pathogens’ Deep Histories https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-viral-paleontologist-who-unearths-pathogens-deep-histories-20240816/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-viral-paleontologist-who-unearths-pathogens-deep-histories-20240816/#respond Fri, 16 Aug 2024 13:06:13 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=139856 The post The Viral Paleontologist Who Unearths Pathogens’ Deep Histories first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> Like many children of his generation, raised on a steady diet of Jurassic Park and its sequels, Sébastien Calvignac-Spencer wanted to be a paleontologist when he grew up. Unlike most, he came close. Rather than digging for fossilized bones in the dirt, however, he paws through objects in natural history museums and medical collections for old biological specimens from which he can extract the...

Source

]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-viral-paleontologist-who-unearths-pathogens-deep-histories-20240816/feed/ 0 The Quest for Simple Rules to Build a Microbial Community https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-quest-for-simple-rules-to-build-a-microbial-community-20240117/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-quest-for-simple-rules-to-build-a-microbial-community-20240117/#respond Wed, 17 Jan 2024 15:26:05 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=134092 The post The Quest for Simple Rules to Build a Microbial Community first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> Bacteria don’t throw dinner parties or tell jokes, but they are social in their own way. When the presence of food gives them an opportunity to grow, reproduce and evolve, they will rapidly, even eagerly, form communities. Like a port city springing up along a waterway, a diverse community of bacteria and other microbes will recognize a good situation for growth and build itself up.

Source

]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-quest-for-simple-rules-to-build-a-microbial-community-20240117/feed/ 0 To Defend the Genome, These Cells Destroy Their Own DNA https://www.quantamagazine.org/to-defend-the-genome-these-cells-destroy-their-own-dna-20230926/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/to-defend-the-genome-these-cells-destroy-their-own-dna-20230926/#respond Tue, 26 Sep 2023 14:00:45 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=130623 The post To Defend the Genome, These Cells Destroy Their Own DNA first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> Marie Delattre was studying the sexual reproduction practices of microscopic worms when she noticed something unexpected. Under the microscope, an embryo of the nematode Mesorhabditis belari was dividing as it should, progressing from one cell to two to four. But inside a few cells she saw an inexplicable spray of DNA fragments floating around where they didn’t belong. “There was DNA everywhere...

Source

]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/to-defend-the-genome-these-cells-destroy-their-own-dna-20230926/feed/ 0 Selfish, Virus-Like DNA Can Carry Genes Between Species https://www.quantamagazine.org/selfish-virus-like-dna-can-carry-genes-between-species-20230803/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/selfish-virus-like-dna-can-carry-genes-between-species-20230803/#respond Thu, 03 Aug 2023 13:58:41 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=128639 The post Selfish, Virus-Like DNA Can Carry Genes Between Species first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> Biologists have understood the broad contours of the rules of inheritance for more than a century: that genes are passed down from parent to child within species. But in more recent years, they have also become aware of genes that go rogue and hop laterally between species — be they frog genes in Madagascar that originally came from snakes, or antifreeze genes found in cold-water fish like herring...

Source

]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/selfish-virus-like-dna-can-carry-genes-between-species-20230803/feed/ 0 How Genetic Surprises Complicate the Old Doctrine of DNA https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-genetic-surprises-complicate-the-old-doctrine-of-dna-20230731/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-genetic-surprises-complicate-the-old-doctrine-of-dna-20230731/#respond Mon, 31 Jul 2023 14:39:31 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=128423 The post How Genetic Surprises Complicate the Old Doctrine of DNA first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> Does an unseen force lurk within genetics? Biologists have made enormous strides over the past 100 years in understanding the role of the millions of parcels that convey our genetic information — DNA, RNA and proteins. But they have also learned about undetectable interactions between these biochemical agents, hiding in their midst like ghosts in the machine, complicating our quest to learn the...

Source

]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-genetic-surprises-complicate-the-old-doctrine-of-dna-20230731/feed/ 0