In the earliest hours after fertilization, an embryo takes its first steps toward becoming a living organism by shedding maternal control and activating its own genetic program. This critical process, ...

Over half of our genomes consists of thousands of remnants of ancient viral DNA, known as transposable elements, which are widespread across the tree of life. Once dismissed as the "dark side" of the ...

Cell division is an essential process for all life on earth, yet the exact mechanisms by which cells divide during early embryonic development have remained elusive – particularly for egg-laying ...

Scientists have uncovered a new way embryonic cells divide when conventional mechanisms fail. Cell division underpins all ...

Is there only one optimal configuration an organism can reach during evolution? Is there a single formula that describes the trajectory towards the optimum? And can we 'derive' it in a purely ...

The latest study from the Sharma Lab at UC Santa Cruz makes the mechanisms of how epigenetic information is established in sperm cells, and how that encoding affects offspring health, a little less of ...