As the climate changes, scientists are concerned about how well plants and animals will adapt to rapid warming. A new ...

A new study from the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences (LMS) in London, UK reveals how ancient viral DNA once written off as "junk" plays a crucial role in the earliest moments of life. The research, ...

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 ...

Biologists have provided new insights on a longstanding puzzle in biology: How complex organisms arise from a single fertilized cell. Producing a new 'gene atlas' with 4-D imaging, the researchers ...

New international research shines a light on the role of transcription factors during early embryonic development. Transcription factors are proteins that are critical for gene regulation. The study ...

A stretch of viral DNA in the mouse genome gives cells in early-stage embryos the potential to become almost any cell type in ...

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, ...

A research team showed that, contrary to current models, one early embryonic cell dominates lineages that will become the fetus. “They are not identical,” said Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz, a ...

Researchers have gained new insights into the mechanism behind the spatial organization of DNA within the cells of early embryos. When an embryo is first formed after fertilization, each cell has the ...

Researchers have discovered a key transition in early embryonic development is facilitated by decreasing levels of a viral protein inserted into the DNA of our early animal ancestors. Researchers at ...