New research is shining a light on one of genetics’ enduring puzzles - how the workings of the so-called “selfish gene” could be harnessed to control harmful insect populations.

In collaboration with Turkana communities, U.S. and Kenyan researchers analyzed Turkana genomes to uncover key genetic adaptations underlying survival in hot and dry environments, revealing how natural selection has enabled this pastoralist population to thrive in the desert. One strongly selected gene is expressed in the kidneys and helps the body conserve water by concentrating urine. It may also play a role in protecting the kidneys from waste generated by purine-rich foods like red meat.

Women, non-native English speakers and those from lower-income countries published fewer English-language peer-reviewed papers than men, native English speakers and those from higher-income countries, according to a study published September 18^th in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by Tatsuya Amano from The University of Queensland, Australia, and colleagues.

One of the great challenges of ecology is to understand the factors that maintain, or undermine, diversity in ecosystems, researchers write in a new report in the journal Science. The researchers detail their development of a new model that — using a tree census and genomic data collected from multiple species in a forest — can predict future fluctuations in the relative abundance of those species.