At the start of life, the origin of a primitive genome required individual replicators, or genes, to act like enzymes and cooperatively copy each other. The evolutionary stability of such enzymatic ...

Plasmids are found in bacteria as extrachromosomal pieces of DNA that replicate separately from the host chromosome. They are a common repository of genes encoding antibiotic resistance, and ...

According to a new study, the first louse to take up residence on a mammalian host likely started out as a parasite of birds. That host-jumping event tens of millions of years ago began the long ...

When scientists attempt to understand how climate change might reshape our environment, they must grapple with the seemingly endless complexity of interacting systems. For those considering the likely ...

When scientists attempt to understand how climate change might reshape our environment, they must grapple with the seemingly endless complexity of interacting systems. For those considering the likely ...

Webs of mutualistic species often expand as new species are introduced. Here a female Anna’s hummingbird visits a Mexican bush sage in a California garden. (Photo by John Thompson) Coevolution, which ...

In a recent study entitled "The feedback between selection and demography shapes genomic diversity during coevolution", which is due for publication in Science Advances on 2 October 2019, researchers ...

Coevolution, which occurs when species interact and adapt to each other, is often studied in the context of pair-wise interactions between mutually beneficial symbiotic partners. But many species have ...