Topic
The study of how genes, proteins, and genomes change over time, including the origins of new functions and traits across lineages.
Biologists at four US universities found identical genetic changes in jellyfish lineages separated by more than 600 million years. Most did not track the eyes and other traits that also evolved repeatedly, the authors report.
Reality
Cornell scientists report in Science that BC200, an RNA gene abundant in human neurons, jumped twice into a poxvirus about 100,000 years ago. The team says it is the first human gene seen both moving and in cellular use, though what it does in neurons is still poorly understood.
Reality
Two Science papers name the protein VIPR and show it silencing a reporter gene and blocking phage in E. coli, guided by an RNA that reads two DNA letters and skips the third, a targeting rule anyone borrowing it will have to design around.
Reality
A University of Osaka team solved the first crystal structure of the pufferfish Tas1r1/Tas1r3 binding domain and found bridges between subdomains that keep the clamshell closed on an imperfect fit. Flavor design sits several steps downstream.
Reality
Purified bacterial mRNA aggregates in a tube, roughly as physical chemistry predicts. Whitehead researchers report that real E. coli sequences interact less than computer-made synonyms, and read that gap as selection for solubility.
Reality
Reported in PNAS, the CLSS model reproduces relationships from the expert-curated ECOD and CATH classifications it never saw in training, and it can place short protein fragments beside complete sequences and structures.
Reality