Bettas were likely the first fish welcomed into human homes. Now, scientists are welcoming them into the lab to learn how genes dictate their appearance and behavior.
The color morph’s bright yellow hue and its propensity for skin tumors both likely stem from a gene implicated in a dangerous form of human skin cancer, suggesting the animals could make an ideal model for studying the disease.
While regeneration has long been the domain of colonial tunicates, a solitary species of sea squirt was able to regenerate into multiple, fully functional individuals within a month of being cut up.
The animals adopt the emotional state of their cagemates, and the parts of the brain engaged during the process are different for pain and fear, according to a new study.
The Sloan Kettering researcher used mutagenic screening to probe genes and molecular pathways, including Toll and Hedgehog, essential to development in fruit flies and mice.
Enhancers, short regions of DNA that direct gene expression, of species separated by 700 million years of evolution worked interchangeably, according to a new study.
Researchers turn to familiar model animals, along with some fresh strategies, to develop countermeasures against SARS-CoV-2 and investigate the biology of infection.
