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Tag Archives: Biological Evolution
Genetic Drift
This Evolution 101 post is by MSU grad student Ali Tehrani Darwinian evolution suggests that the pattern of changes in populations is driven by natural selection, i.e. those individuals that are more fit survive and reproduce. Does that mean populations of … Continue reading
Artificial selection and correlated traits
This Evolution 101 post is by MSU grad student Tyler Derr One of the basic mechanisms of evolutionary change is natural selection. It was in Charles Darwin’s famous book, On the Origin of Species, where he defined natural selection to be … Continue reading
Posted in Evolution 101, Uncategorized
Tagged Biological Evolution, Domestication
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It’s a (Selective) Sweep for the Good Genes!
This Evolution 101 post is by MSU grad student Douglas Kirkpatrick In baseball, ice hockey, and basketball, when a team wins all of the games in a playoff series, they are said to have swept the other team out of the … Continue reading
Posted in Evolution 101
Tagged antibiotic resistance, Biological Evolution, Evolution 101, genetics, genomics, mutations
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Pseudogenes
This Evolution 101 post is by MSU grad student Tyler Derr I’m sure you’ve heard the saying that our DNA is the “blueprint” of who we are. Well, our genes are the sequences in our DNA that actually encode instructions for … Continue reading
Evolution 101 – Mutations: From the X-Men to the X-Chromosome
This Evolution 101 post is by MSU grad student Douglas Kirkpatrick Everyone knows what mutation is, right? It’s that magical scientific hand-wave that gives the X-Men their powers. Almost certainly the result of interaction with gamma radiation or toxic substances, mutation … Continue reading
Evolving antimutator microbial machines
This post is by University of Texas at Austin grad student Dacia Leon (Twitter: @leondacia) Fluorescence microplate readers are really exciting. These instruments are a staple in any synthetic biology lab given that they allow for high-throughput quantification of microbial growth and fluorescence … Continue reading
Mass Extinctions, Evolution, and…. Robots?
Check out this great video produced by the UT Alumni Association talking about research by BEACONites Joel Lehman and Risto Miikkulainen at UT Austin. Lehman and Miikkulainen published an awesome paper in PLOS ONE looking at evolution after a mass extinction. I, for one, … Continue reading
A microbe-dependent world: studying the legume-rhizobia symbiosis for a more sustainable future
This post is by MSU grad student Shawna Rowe Living in a world full of fascinating visual elements and intriguing macro-organisms often results in people forgetting the most abundant group of earth’s inhabitants— microbes. Microbes are not only the most … Continue reading
Male battles split species apart
This post is by MSU postdoc Jason Keagy How do species form? Stated more precisely, how does one species become two? This turns out to be an immensely difficult question to answer, because 1) species are not always distinct entities (species … Continue reading
Can evolution help us rebuild native habitats?
This post is by MSU graduate student Anna Groves. If you look at the lyrics of two of the most iconic songs in American history, you’ll find that both reveal the composers’ fondness for the wide open spaces of our … Continue reading