Genetics

Genetics

Selfish genes hide for decades in plain sight of worm geneticists

Crossing wild Hawaiian C. elegans with the familiar lab strain reveals genes that benefit themselves by making mother worms poison offspring who haven’t inherited the right stuff.

Health & Medicine

Breast cancer cells spread in an already-armed mob

Source tumors may already contain the mutations that drive aggressive cancer spread.

Science & Society

Fox experiment is replaying domestication in fast-forward

How to Tame a Fox recounts a nearly 60-year experiment in Russia to domesticate silver foxes.

Genetics

Ancient DNA bucks tale of how the horse was tamed

DNA from ancient horses reveals early domestication involved plenty of stallions.

Animals

Dog DNA study maps breeds across the world

Here are five findings from a massive study of dog breed genomes.

Genetics

Gene knockouts in people provide drug safety, effectiveness clues

People naturally lacking certain genes give clues about drug safety and efficacy, a study in Pakistanis shows.

Health & Medicine

Genetic risk of getting second cancer tallied for pediatric survivors

Inherited mutations, not only treatment, affect the chances that a childhood cancer survivor will develop a second cancer later in life.

Genetics

Cephalopods may have traded evolution gains for extra smarts

Editing RNA may give cephalopods smarts, but there’s a trade-off.

Genetics

Gene editing of human embryos yields early results

Gene editing in embryos has started in labs, but isn’t ready for the clinic.

Genetics

In 1967, LSD was briefly labeled a breaker of chromosomes

Claims that the hallucinogenic drug damaged DNA were quickly rejected. But questions remain about how LSD works.

Genetics

How to grow toxin-free corn

Corn genetically altered to produce specialized molecules may prevent a fungus from tainting it with carcinogenic toxins.

Genetics

Scientists move closer to building synthetic yeast from scratch

Scientists have created five more synthetic yeast chromosomes.