In order for animals to react to an internal or external stimulus with the appropriate behaviour, the input signals need to be received, processes and transmitted correctly to the effector cells, e.g.
Over the course of their life cycle butterflies are exposed to a range of environmental factors, which act as both inducers of phenotypic variation as well as selective agents.
High throughput experiments that generate complex / information rich datasets are increasingly found in biology. However, to fully mine and visualise these datasets it is necessary to make use of computational methods using various bioinformatic approaches.
The genetic basis underlying the vast diversity observed in animal male genitalia has eluded evolutionary research for decades. Recently we uncovered a gene that explains a large difference in organ size between species.
Neurodevelopmental disorders, such as Autistic Spectrum Disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Intellectual Disability and Developmental Language Disorder are all known to have substantial and overlapping genetic risk contributions that, presumably, affect early brain development (Newbury, Monaco, Paracchini, 2014).
