News Finding: But the new study identifies the genes switched on in two species of woodrat with resistance to the plant poisons, showing that the genes that they are born with play a central role in whether they feel the effects of its toxic chemicals.
Paper Finding: Naïve N. bryanti had more than twice the number of GO terms that passed these criteria.
News Context: But the new study identifies the genes switched on in two species of woodrat with resistance to the plant poisons, showing that the genes that they are born with play a central role in whether they feel the effects of its toxic chemicals. Being able to withstand the creosote bush's resin gives them exclusive access to the valuable food source in an area with little plant life. They found that when woodrats had been exposed to the creosote bush in the wild, a small number of similar genes were switched on by both species to detoxify the plant, despite having evolved the mechanisms at completely different times.
Paper Context: Significant Gene Ontology (GO) terms (within biological process) were different in the naïve versus experienced N. bryanti. Naïve N. bryanti had more than twice the number of GO terms that passed these criteria. The top terms related to responses to stimuli; many of the other terms related to stress, damage and cell death (Table 4A ).