cold adaptation

Environmental pressure seems to spawn changes in the intrinsically disordered regions of enzymes in polar yeasts, allowing them to adapt to extreme cold.

The animals kill off around one-quarter of the neurons in their somatosensory cortex, perhaps to save energy, and the cells appear to return the following summer.

Humans living in higher latitudes tend to have a variant of a gene involved in sensing cold temperatures, but it comes with a cost.  

Syrian hamsters and thirteen-lined ground squirrels are tolerant of chilly temperatures, thanks to amino acid changes in a cold-responsive ion channel. 

Spruce and pine and have relied on similar genetic toolkits for climate adaptation despite millions of years of evolution.

Assistant Professor, Department of Cell and Tissue Biology, University of California, San Francisco. Age: 39

Why scientists are so near and yet so far from being able to cryopreserve organs

A handful of species have learned how to survive in freezing climates. To do so, the animals must counteract the damaging effects of ice crystal formation, or keep from freezing altogether. Here are a few ways they do it.

A genetic analysis of Siberians finds three genes that have evolved to help the populations weather the frigid winters.

For at least one species of octopus, all it takes is a little RNA editing.