The evolution of multicellular life has played a pivotal role in shaping biological diversity. However, we have up until now known surprisingly little about the natural environmental conditions that ...

An international research team has made an unexpected discovery of a biased counting mechanism used by the single-celled green alga Chlamydomonas to control cell division. An international research ...

Multicellular cyanobacteria do something strikingly sophisticated with their DNA, toggling key genes on and off as day turns to night so different cells can specialize without starving the colony of ...

People often underestimate tiny beings. But microscopic algal cells not only evolved to thrive in one of the most extreme habitats on Earth – glaciers – but are also shaping them. With a team of ...

Zygnema belongs to Zygnematophyceae, a class of freshwater and semi-terrestrial algae with more than 4,000 described species that have adapted to withstand extreme stressors like UV light, extreme ...

Volvocine algae provide an excellent model for understanding the gradual evolution from unicellularity to complex multicellularity. Spanning a range of organization from simple unicellular forms to ...

The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. Once upon a time, long ago, the world was encased in ice. That’s the tale told by sedimentary rock in the tropics, many geologists ...

The following is an extract from our nature newsletter Wild Wild Life. Sign up to receive it for free in your inbox every month. New Scientist recently reported on something I’d never heard of before: ...

What is the last common ancestor of all plants and animals? Where did complex life come from and when? Scientists have been trying to answer these questions for many years. A new finding has changed ...

ST. LOUIS, MO, November 13, 2023 — An international research team led by James Umen, PhD, member, Donald Danforth Plant Science Center has made an unexpected discovery of a biased counting mechanism ...