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In population genetics, gene flow (also known as gene migration) is the transfer of alleles or genes from one population to another. Migration into or out of a population may be responsible for a marked change in allele frequencies (the proportion of members carrying a particular variant of a gene). Immigration may also result in the addition of new genetic variants to the established gene pool of a particular species or population.

The researchers isolated different subpopulations of human brain stem cells and precisely identified, which genes are active in which cell type. In doing so, they noticed the gene ARHGAP11B: it is only found in humans and in our closest relatives, the Neanderthals and Denisova-Humans, but not in chimpanzees. This gene manages to trigger brain stem cells to form a bigger pool of stem cells. In that way, during brain development more neurons can arise and the cerebrum can expand. The cerebrum is responsible for cognitive functions like speaking and thinking.

Dogs are excellent models for studying genetics, especially disease genetics. Work done in the last 20 years has shown that dogs share many gene-related disorders with people. Each breed is a closed reproductive population with distinct rates of heritable diseases, which dramatically increases the odds of finding disease-related loci. In creating new dog breeds, we reduce the gene pool within those populations, and fix many alleles. This homogeneous background makes it much easier to map QTLs and perform linkage analyses

2:27 video overview of gene therapy

simulation of natural selection