Category: 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.

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.

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.