Oligocene CO2 Decline Promoted C4 Photosynthesis in Grasses

davidd submitted, created time 11 months 3 weeks (www.current-biology.com)

C4 photosynthesis is an adaptation derived from the more common C3 photosynthetic pathway that confers a higher productivity under warm temperature and low atmospheric CO2 concentration. In this study, they inferred a large phylogenetic tree for the grass family and estimated, and make the C3/C4 divergence times more precise.

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Teenage weight may affect later fertility

abc01 submitted, created time 1 year 3 months (www.reutershealth.com)

A study has found that teenagers who are either underweight or obese are likely to have fewer children in adulthood.

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Vitamin and mineral supplements in pregnancy and the risk of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia

DanyC submitted, created time 1 year 6 months (www.biomedcentral.com)

"Their own study, of similar size to the Australian study, does not support the hypothesis of a protective effect of folate on childhood ALL. Neither do the findings of the meta-analysis."

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SINEposts for primate evolution

technology submitted, created time 1 year 10 months (www.biomedcentral.com)

Complex speciation patterns and relationships within Guenons, a species-rich group of old world monkeys, are revealed by phylogenetic analysis of short interspersed elements (SINEs) in their genomes.

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What is the relationship between the phylogenome of human, dog, and mouse?

big pig submitted, created time 1 year 10 months (compbiol.plosjournals.org)

In recent years the phylogenetic relationship of mammalian orders has been addressed in a number of molecular studies. These analyses have frequently yielded inconsistent results with respect to some basal ordinal relationships. For example, the relative placement of primates, rodents, and carnivores has differed in various studies. To minimize the risk of reconstruction artifacts, the trees were reconstructed under different criteria—distance, parsimony, and likelihood

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