The genes of polar bears are showing they’re adapting in the face of a rapidly evolving world – and that is not necessarily good news. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.

Scientists at the University of East Anglia studied the genetic material from blood samples of 17 polar bears, 12 of which were living in the colder reaches of northeastern Greenland and 5 from warmer southeastern Greenland.

They paid close attention to so-called " jumping genes ," aka transposons, segments that can move around within the genome and influence gene activity. Using RNA sequencing to track which genes were switched on or off, the team uncovered striking differences between the two populations.

The analysis revealed that bears living in th

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