Great leap forward? Transposable elements, small interfering RNA and adaptive Lamarckian evolution

Small interfering RNA; principles, applications and challenges--

Gene silencing using RNAi (RNA interference), has recently been used as a successful laboratory technique in determining the function and control of gene expression and provides a wide range of applications in molecular biology and gene therapy. RNAi is a method of suppressing gene expression. In this direction, a single-stranded RNA molecule of about 21–23 nucleotides, called siRNA (small inte...

Great leap forward

One of Europe’s rarest small mammals — the flying squirrel — has been given a boost to save it from extinction, sparing the Finnish government from legal action by the European Commission. The Finnish government has changed its law to protect the squirrels and paid out one million euros in compensation to about 400 farmers and landowners who have to curb normal activities for the squirrels’ saf...

The great leap forward

Similarly, the theory of genome duplication, which was first seriously developed in 1970 by the Japaneseborn geneticist Susumu Ohno (1970), also cannot properly explain the great phenotypic changes that have occurred during the 75 million years since the human and mouse lineages split. Duplications, either of chromosomal regions or of whole genomes, occur naturally, for example, through errors ...

China's next great leap forward.

Waiting for the great leap forward.