A computational method to authenticate low-coverage ancient DNA experiments shows that putative wheat sequences from 8000 years old sediments are most likely not of ancient origin.
Experimental mapping of the joint sequence space of an ancient transcription factor (TF) and its DNA binding sites reveals that epistasis across the molecular interface permitted the evolution of a new and specific TF-DNA complex.
The mouse gene Ythdc2 exemplifies an evolutionarily ancient family of crucial regulators of the transition from germline stem cell divisions to meiosis.
Jessica Metcalf of the University of Colorado is rapidly becoming an expert regarding the science of death. "I've been into dead things for a while," she told eLife. "They hold a lot of information."
The dual function of an ancient prokaryotic enzyme, which is linked to specific metabolite signals, may have been the evolutionary driving force behind its dual localization in eukaryotes.
The analysis of 18th century Y. pestis genomes reveals a bacterial lineage that might be responsible for the 400-year period of European plague epidemics from the Renaissance through early modern times.
The extinct stilt-legged equids of North America are not related to Asiatic asses or horses, but instead represent a distinct lineage outside of living equid diversity that became extinct in the terminal Pleistocene.
DNA sequences from the Middle Pleistocene reveal that the extinct Eurasian straight-tusked elephants were closely related to today's African forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis) in Africa.
Ancient hepatitis B virus (HBV) genomes were reconstructed from up to 7000-year-old Stone Age human skeletons, suggesting a long-time complex co-evolution with human populations.
