Since the days of Darwin, the “tree of life” has been the preeminent metaphor for the process of evolution, reflecting the gradual branching and changing of individual species. The discovery that a ...

Scientists have uncovered a surprising way that “jumping genes” may move between species and speed up evolution. While these mobile genetic elements were thought to travel mainly inside viruses or ...

Genes are not passed on exclusively from parents to their offspring. Some are mobile and can also jump to other species, as researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen ...