194 papers
Genetics is the fascinating study of how traits are passed down and how our DNA shapes everything from eye color to disease risk. At Gist.Science, we bring you the very latest discoveries in this dynamic field directly from bioRxiv, the leading preprint server for biology. Because these findings appear months before formal publication, staying updated requires sifting through complex data that often feels inaccessible to non-specialists.
To bridge that gap, our team processes every new genetics preprint uploaded to bioRxiv, transforming dense scientific reports into clear, plain-language explanations alongside detailed technical summaries. This dual approach ensures that whether you are a seasoned researcher or simply curious about how genes work, you can grasp the core insights without getting lost in jargon. Below are the latest papers in genetics, curated and simplified for your reading.
This study characterizes a novel mouse model harboring a Tuba4aQ176P mutation that recapitulates key features of human spastic ataxia type 11 and congenital myopathy type 26, providing a specific tool to investigate cell-type selective neurodegeneration and myopathy without motor neuron loss.
This study employs massively parallel reporter assays, CRISPR interference, and saturation mutagenesis to map cis-regulatory elements and identify the functional impact of genetic variants on the MAPT locus, revealing novel neuron-specific regulatory mechanisms relevant to tauopathies.
By integrating genomic and transcriptomic data with explainable artificial intelligence, this study successfully identified key genes and gene-gene interactions governing flowering time and biomass plasticity in switchgrass across diverse environments, demonstrating that interpretable machine learning models can transform trait prediction into actionable mechanistic hypotheses for crop improvement.
This study demonstrates that aging-induced circadian dysregulation in the kidneys dynamically alters senescence and inflammatory pathways in a sex- and time-of-day dependent manner, revealing that senescent phenotypes are not static but oscillate and can be identified by disrupted circadian gene relationships.
This study reports the first discovery of a toxin-antidote selfish genetic system in vertebrates, where the mouse HSR locus biases its inheritance by depositing a DNA-damaging toxin (SP100) that kills wild-type embryos while sparing those that also inherit the antidote (SP110).
This study identifies a three-miRNA signature (hsa-miR-30e-5p, hsa-miR-103a-3p, and hsa-miR-200b-3p) in plasma-derived extracellular vesicles that distinguishes schizophrenia patients from healthy controls, with specific miRNAs showing associations with neurogenesis, working memory, and white matter integrity.
This study reveals that in *Drosophila*, Myc-driven Coenzyme A biosynthesis in the kidney (Malpighian tubules) utilizes dietary Vitamin B5 to generate a systemic signal that activates the gut's mevalonate-isoprenoid pathway, thereby promoting intestinal stem cell proliferation and tumor growth, a mechanism conserved in human cancers.
This study identifies that glutamate signaling, specifically through the conserved ionotropic receptor GLR-5, plays a critical role in regulating the timing and maintenance of stress-induced sleep within the simple neural circuit of *C. elegans*, suggesting that such conserved pathways likely modulate sleep in more complex animals as well.
This study employs an integrative taxonomic approach to resurrect *Hypanus brevis* as a distinct species from the Eastern South Pacific, separating it from the Eastern North Pacific *H. dipterurus* based on genetic divergence and historical descriptions, while highlighting concerns over a severe genetic bottleneck in the Peruvian population that necessitates urgent conservation measures.
Using a fuzzy regression discontinuity design on UK Biobank data, this study finds no causal evidence that an additional year of education affects telomere length decades later, challenging the prevailing view that education has long-lasting protective effects on biological aging.