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The evolution and differentiation of species is often accompanied by gene duplication events, which serve as a major mechanism creating new genes and expanding existing and gene families. Among primates, including humans, such changes have resulted in a large number of primate-specific genes or expanded gene families, some of which are related to certain phenotypic traits likely important to th... more |
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Sheep and goats such common fixtures of pastoral and farming life that few bother to ask where they came from or how they became such major hallmarks of human agriculture and animal husbandry. The typical narrative to explain how these now ubiquitous goats and sheep were engrained in the collective imagination of the rural countryside is that they accompanied humans along their migrations along... more |
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While Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has often used skins of toads or other amphibians as a therapeutic, only preliminary work has been done to isolate why these materials actually exhibit an effect. Some previous studies conducted in China have identified potentially bioactive compounds within the skin of toads, but in terms of potential, Salamanders may prove more interesting. Salamanders... more |
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Two decades ago, the initial discovery of the protein prohibitin’s (PHB) function as an anti-proliferative has sparked major research initiatives geared at untangling the molecular mechanisms involved in prohibitin’s cell proliferation and tumor suppressing activities. Later research found this activity was largely controlled by the gene encoding prohibitin, leaving some question as to what t... more |
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The Chinese tree shrew (Tupaia belangeri chinensis), a closer affinity to primates, is increasingly considered as a viable alternative animal model for biomedical research due to a variety of unique characteristics, e.g., small adult body size, short reproductive cycle and life span, low cost of maintenance. While the recently published genome of the Chinese tree shrew greatly extends the nec... more |
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