Poison: It's What's for Dinner (Thanks to Packrat Genes)
Sunday, April 5, 2009 - 22:28
in Biology & Nature
As the U.S. Southwest grew warmer from 18,700 to 10,000 years ago, juniper trees vanished from what is now the Mojave Desert, robbing packrats of their favorite food. Now, University of Utah biologists have narrowed the hunt for detoxification genes that let the rodents eat toxic creosote bushes that replaced juniper. They have identified 24 candidate genes.