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Category: This Week in Evolution

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TWiEVO 86: Pulling out the stops in genetic code evolution

  • February 2, 2023
  • Tagged as: anticodon, eRF1, evolution, natural selection, protein synthesis, protist, stop codon, tRNA

Nels and Vincent discuss how evolution of changes in stop codon assignment might occur, and a novel mechanism for altering the meaning of translation stop codons discovered in a trypanosomatid with the apropos name, Blastocrithidia nonstop.

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  • This Week in Evolution
  • This Week in Evolution

TWiEVO 85: Teaching old dogs new genetic tricks

  • December 21, 2022
  • Tagged as: canid, canid genome, canine, canine behavioral diversification, canine lineages, dog, dog evolution, evolution, natural selection

Nels and Vincent discuss the use of genome sequence data for over 4,000 domestic, semi-feral, and wild canids to understand the genetic drivers of canine behavior.

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  • This Week in Evolution
  • This Week in Evolution

TWiEVO 83: Evolution spreads its wings (and then loses them)

  • October 24, 2022
  • Tagged as: bird, evolution, evolution of flight, flightless bird, natural selection, passerine bird, powered flight

Florian Maderspacher from Current Biology joins Nels and Vincent to discuss a special issue of the journal on birds.

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  • This Week in Evolution
  • This Week in Evolution

TWiEVO 82: A genetic hack for the human brain

  • September 22, 2022
  • Tagged as: evolution, frontal cortex, H. sapiens, neocortex, neurogenesis, TKTL1

Nels and Vincent consider evidence that a single amino acid change in the TKTL1 gene might have led to greater neurogenesis in the frontal cortex of modern humans compared with Neanderthals.

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  • This Week in Evolution
  • This Week in Evolution

TWiEVO 80: Viruses of a feather bottleneck together

  • August 1, 2022
  • Tagged as: evolution, influenza virus H5N1, mumps virus, mutation, natural selection, phylogenomics, SARS-CoV-2, transmission bottleneck, virus

Louise Moncla joins Nels and Vincent to review her use of genomics to understand emergence, evolution, and transmission of respiratory viruses including influenza virus H5N1, mumps virus, and SARS-CoV-2.

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  • This Week in Evolution
  • This Week in Evolution

TWiEVO 79: When the immune system is away, SARS-CoV-2 will play

  • July 2, 2022
  • Tagged as: antibody evasion, chronic infection, coronavirus, COVID-19, evolution, fitness, immunocompromised, natural selection, pandemic, SARS-CoV-2, variants of concern

Nels and Vincent discuss an analysis of the drivers of evolution of SARS-CoV-2 during chronic infections, indicating that a tradeoff exists between antibody evasion and fitness.

3 Replies
  • This Week in Evolution
  • This Week in Evolution

TWiEVO 77: The mutations of our lives

  • April 26, 2022
  • Tagged as: age, cancer, evolution, germline mutation, mammal, mutation, mutation rate, natural selection, somatic mutation

Alex joins Nels and Vincent to discuss his work which demonstrates that somatic mutation rates scale with lifespan in mammals.

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  • Episode
  • This Week in Evolution
  • This Week in Evolution

TWiEVO 76: One-step symbiosis

  • March 22, 2022
  • Tagged as: E. coli, evolution, mutualism, natural selection, reduced genome, stinkbug, symbiont

Nels and Vincent describe how a single amino acid change can allow E. coli to replace the essential gut symbiont of the stinkbug Plautia stali.

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  • Episode
  • This Week in Evolution
  • This Week in Evolution

TWiEVO 75: Even the BANAL coronaviruses are interesting

  • February 24, 2022
  • Tagged as: coronavirus, Laos, pandemic, Rhinolophus bat, SARS-CoV-2, spillover, virology, virus, viruses, zoonosis

Nels and Vincent review isolation of SARS-CoV-2-like viruses from bats in Laos that can replicate in human cells.

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