SubscribeAs much as one-third of marine life, including clams, octupuses and worms, fall into a group called the lophotrochozoa, ancient creatues that originated more than 500 million years ago. Berkeley’s Daniel Rokhsar spearheaded a team that has now sequenced the genomes of 3 of these creatures, a limpet, a polychaete worm and a freshwater leech, to learn more about their evolution.
Tag: evolution
What do leeches, limpets and worms have in common?
December 19, 2012:
Garniss Curtis, pioneer of precision fossil dating, has died at 93
February 26, 2013:
UC Berkeley geologist Garniss H. Curtis, a professor emeritus of earth and planetary science who pioneered the use of radioactive isotopes to date relatively young rocks, thereby providing the first solid timeline for human evolution, died Dec. 18 in Orinda, Calif., at the age of 93.
Robotic roach gets wings, sheds light on evolution of flight
October 17, 2011:
When UC Berkeley engineers outfitted a six-legged robotic bug with wings in an effort to improve its mobility, they unexpectedly shed some light on the evolution of flight. The wings nearly doubled the running speed of the 25-gram robot. Find out why that wasn’t good enough for takeoff.
Patrick Kirch awarded Gregory Medal for Pacific research
June 28, 2011:
Patrick V. Kirch, a UC Berkeley professor of anthropology and integrative biology and an authority on the archaeology of the Pacific Islands, has been awarded the 2011 Herbert E. Gregory Medal for Distinguished Service to Science in the Pacific Region.
Analysis of bread mold genomes demos ‘reverse-ecology’ tool
January 31, 2011:
In a demonstration of “reverse-ecology,” UC Berkeley biologists have shown that one can determine an organism’s adaptive traits by looking first at its genome and checking for variations across a population. The study offers a powerful new tool in evolutionary genetics research, one that could be used to help monitor the effects of climate change and habitat destruction.
Jillian Banfield to receive Franklin Medal, L’Oreal-UNESCO award
November 9, 2010:
Jillian Banfield, a biogeochemist and geomicrobiologist, will receive two prestigious awards for her groundbreaking work on how microbes alter rocks and interact with the natural world.
Neural circuit ensures zebrafish will not bite off more than it can chew
October 29, 2010:
UC Berkeley neuroscientists have found that when zebrafish larvae see large objects, like leaves or other zebrafish, a large number of inhibitory nerve cells fire in the brain to tamp down a prey response. But when the larvae see small, prey-size objects, fewer inhibitory nerve cells fire and the fish quickly responds. This simple neural circuit helps explain the visual filters that enable prey capture.
Scientists find signals that make cell nucleus blow up like a balloon
October 14, 2010:
The size of a cell’s nucleus varies from one species to another, in different cell types, and even with disease: many cancer cells develop larger nuclei as they become more malignant. Working with the African clawed frog, Rebecca Heald and Daniel Levy have discovered two proteins that control the size of the nucleus.
Fungal spores travel farther by surfing their own wind
September 27, 2010:
Many fungi, including the destructive Sclerotinia, spew thousands of spores at once to give the spores an extra boost into their host plants. UC Berkeley, Harvard and Cornell researchers now show how this works. The near-simultaneous ejection of spores reduces drag to nearly zero and creates a wind that carries some of the spores 20 times farther than a single spore could travel solo.
For neurons to work as a team, it helps to have a beat
September 20, 2010:
When it comes to conducting complex tasks, it turns out that the brain needs rhythm, according to UC Berkeley researchers. Neuroscientists have found that cortical rhythms, or oscillations, can effectively rally groups of neurons in widely dispersed regions of the brain to engage in coordinated activity, much like a conductor will summon up various sections of an orchestra in a symphony.
Frog evolution tracks rise of Himalayas and rearrangement of Southeast Asia
August 5, 2010:
The spiny frogs of Asia have hard, nubby spines on their chests and arms and Popeye-like forearms in order to securely grasp females during mating in swift-flowing streams. Kunming Institute of Zoology and UC Berkeley biologists have conducted a genetic analysis of 24 species of spiny frogs to track the rise of the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau that led to their diversification.
Genome of ancient sponge reveals origins of first animals, cancer
August 4, 2010:
A team of researchers led by Daniel Rokhsar has published a draft genome sequence of the sea sponge, an organism that wasn’t recognizied as an animal until the 19th century. The genome gives insight into the origins of multicellular animals and cancer.
Tibetans adapted to high altitude in less than 3,000 years
July 1, 2010:
UC Berkeley’s Rasmus Nielsen teamed up with Chinese researchers to compare the genomes of Tibetans living above 14,000 feet to Han Chinese living at essentially sea level. They found that within the last 3,000 years, Tibetans evolved genetic mutations in a number of genes having to do with how the body deals with oxygen, making it possible for Tibetans to thrive at high altitudes while their Han relatives cannot.
