Genes

The clearest picture yet of our “last universal common ancestor” suggests it was a relatively complex organism living 4.2 billion years ago, a time long considered too harsh for life to flourish.

New research has uncovered a social world of viruses full of cheating, cooperation and other intrigues, suggesting that viruses make sense only as members of a community.

Highly repetitive regions of junk DNA may be the key to a newly discovered mechanism for gene regulation.

For decades, Carrie Partch has led pioneering structural research on the protein clockwork that keeps time for our circadian rhythm. Is time still on her side?

By watching “minimal” cells regain the fitness they lost, researchers are testing whether a genome can be too simple to evolve.

Genetic elements called Mavericks that have some viral features could be responsible for the large-scale smuggling of DNA between species.

A new genetics study of ant “social parasites” shows how complex sets of features can emerge rapidly and potentially split species.

The first large-scale comparison of mutation rates gives insights into how quickly species can evolve.

A novel type of “jumping gene” may explain why the genomes of complex cells aren’t all equally stuffed with noncoding sequences.