EarthSauce Kyle Tucker

Sorry for the delay! I have been busy with work and the holidays but, continuing from the last episode, this episode discusses recent advances in the field of epigenetics. I discuss how the field has changed since its coining, how epigenetics interacts with the environment, and how diseases affect gene expression. There are myriad ways in which gene expression can be altered and we talk about a few here, including methylation and histone modification. The full citation for this paper is: Cavalli, G., and Heard, E. Advances in epigenetics link genetics to the environment and disease. Nature 571, 489-495 (2019). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-019-1411-0. 

As always if you have any questions, comments, or concerns, or you have a paper you'd like me to review, send the full citation to podsauce@gmail.com! Thanks for listening.

In this episode, I discuss some simple genetics background that we will need for the next episode on epigenetics. I talk about the central dogma of biology, DNA, RNA, proteins, and epigenetics. Next episode I will be going over this paper: Cavalli, G., Heard, E. Advances in epigenetics link genetics to the environment and disease. Nature 571, 489–499 (2019) doi:10.1038/s41586-019-1411-0.

As always, if you have any questions, comments, or concerns, or you have a paper you'd like me to review, send the full citation to podsauce@gmail.com! Thanks for listening.

Most of the time, when we think about evolution, we're only looking at how our physical traits. But do you think that the human mind is evolving along with the body, or is it simple reacting to it? That's what the authors of this week's paper discuss. They argue that context is just as important for the mind and it is for the body. Here's the full citation: Al-Shawaf L., Lewis D.M.G., Wehbe Y.S., Buss D.M. (2019) Context, Environment, and Learning in Evolutionary Psychology. In: Shackelford T., Weekes-Shackelford V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6.

As always, if you have any questions, comments, concerns, or you have a paper you'd like me to breakdown, send them to podsauce@gmail.com. Thanks for listening.

What comes to mind when you think of ecology? Is it how species interact with each other and/or their environment? Is it ecological resources, like space and water? But what about time? That's right, time is an important ecological resource! In this paper, the authors argue that shifting from a diurnal to a nocturnal lifestyle can help animals lower energy, heat, and water costs. They ultimately come to the conclusion that shifting their timing is a viable option for dealing with climate change. The full citation for this paper is: Levy, O., Dayan, T., Porter, W.P., Kronfeld-Schor, N. “Time and ecological resilience: can diurnal animals compensate for climate change by shifting to nocturnal activity?” Ecological Monographs, Vol.89, No.1, 2018. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/ecm.1334. If you have any questions, comments, concerns, or a paper that you'd like me to review, send them to podsauce@gmail.com. Thanks for listening.

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"Our study suggests the multi-decadal history of coral recruitment already captures biogeographic dynamics that are consistent with on-going patterns of global warming," (Price et al 2019).

In this paper, the authors reviewed 38 years of coral recruitment and migration data to see if, in fact, corals are reacting to global change. They argue that this is reflected in two ways: decreased fecundity at native coral grounds, and increased recruitment in novel locations. Through the data collected from recruitment tile studies, they conclude that there is reason to be hopeful for coral persistence.



This paper's full citation is: Price NN, Muko S, Legendre L, Steneck R and others (2019) Global biogeography of coral recruitment: tropical decline and subtropical increase. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 621:1-17. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps12980.

If you have any questions, comments, concerns, or a paper you would like me to review, send an email to podsauce@gmail.com! Thanks for listening.