Centromeres play virtually the same central role across the entire tree of life: They ensure the faithful segregation of ...

Centromeres are regions of DNA where the cell's machinery grabs each chromosome and pulls it into the two daughter cells. Centromeres are essential ...

When Charles Darwin first proposed how evolution works in 1859, it seemed plausible. Tiny changes stack up over time, eventually leading a species to become something entirely different. Aside from ...

Scientists may have a step forward in understanding how life on our planet came to exist. The mystery of how tiny molecules of RNA came to be enclosed within membranes, forming the very first cells, ...

A bizarre and ugly fish that has been around for hundreds of millions of years has been discovered to have the most DNA of any animal ever found. These South American lungfish (Lepidosiren paradoxa) ...

Scientists at the University of Vienna, Austria, have screened great ape specimens obtained from natural history museums to identify DNA viruses. This groundbreaking study provides unique insights ...

This research introduces a novel method for inferring DNA methylation patterns in non-skeletal tissues from ancient specimens, providing new insights into human evolution. As DNA methylation is a key ...

Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute and UCL have analyzed ancient DNA from Borrelia recurrentis, a type of bacteria that causes relapsing fever, pinpointing when it evolved to spread through ...