Language of gene switches unchanged across evolution
The language used in the switches that turn genes on and off has remained the same across millions of years of evolution, according to a new study led by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. The findings, which are published in the scientific journal eLife, indicate that the differences between animals reside in the content and length of the instructions that are written using this conserved language.Tiny fruit flies look very different from humans, but both are descended from a common ancestor that existed over 600 million years ago. Differences between animal species are often