adaptation

Forced to respond to a climate that’s changing faster than it ever has, it remains unclear whether species’ adaptations can keep pace.

Environmental pressure seems to spawn changes in the intrinsically disordered regions of enzymes in polar yeasts, allowing them to adapt to extreme cold.

Researchers made the find using an algorithm that purportedly distinguishes between mutations that were selected for and those that came along for the ride by coincidence, a feat that has long eluded scientists.

Most animals can’t pass on mutations that arise spontaneously throughout their lives—but Elkhorn corals can.

The findings mean that penguins may struggle to adapt under rapid climate change, researchers say.

Arboreal salamanders use skydiving techniques to avoid smashing to the ground after a fall.

The first high-quality genome for a marine isopod may shed light on how this group of crustaceans adapted to the deep, dark depths of the ocean.

Researchers find that evolution can operate on extraordinarily fast timescales.

Long lambasted as junk DNA or genomic parasites, transposable elements turn out to be contributors to adaptation.

The movements of so-called jumping genes can generate the genetic diversity needed to drive evolutionary change in populations over time.  

The Princeton University evolutionary biologist studies how animals are changing due to human activity.

Researchers are using experiments and observational studies to look for host genetic variation that could be partly determined by the gut microbiota.

Bacteria that live in the digestive tracts of animals may influence the adaptive trajectories of their hosts.

The physiological demands of that long neck get support from a gene involved in strengthening bones and blood vessels, researchers find after inserting the sequence in mice.

In yellow-green and purple versions of the reef-building Acropora tenuis, the genes that code for particular fluorescent and other colorful proteins become more active in the summer, protecting symbiotic algae from thermal stress and resisting bleaching.

The animals kill off around one-quarter of the neurons in their somatosensory cortex, perhaps to save energy, and the cells appear to return the following summer.

Unable to break through the water’s surface, tadpoles have a unique workaround for breathing air.