Darwinian fitness, evolutionary entropy and directionality theory

Article Abstract:

The phenomenon of the outcome of competition between an invading genotype and that of a resident population is determined in terms of the demographic parameter termed as 'evolutionary entropy', a measure of the variability in the age at which individuals produce offsprings and die. The results show that evolutionary entropy determines Darwinian fitness and increases in equilibrium species and decreases or undergoes random non-directional change in opportunistic species.

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Probing bacterial nucleoid structure with optical tweezers

Article Abstract:

The H-NS protein, a major component of the nucleoid in Gram-negative bacterial cells, forms bridges between different DNA molecules or between different sections of the same molecule, facilitating it to compact and impose structure on nucleoid. New insights into H-NS mediated DNA bridging that were obtained using tweezers device are described.

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Size assessment and growth control: How adult size is determined in insects

Article Abstract:

The mechanisms responsible for controlling growth rates and size assessment in insects are discussed. Researchers have found that the insulin-dependent growth of the prothoracic gland is involved in assessing when critical weight is reached and mutations in DHR4, a repressor of ecdysone signaling, reduce critical weight and adult size.

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