Genetics News

Original New Guinea Singing Dogs Still Exist in the Wild, Study Shows

Lady Foot, a Highland wild dog native to New Guinea. Image credit: New Guinea Highland Wild Dog Foundation.
Sep 8, 2020 by News Staff

The founding population of the New Guinea singing dog, a small-to-medium-sized canid thought to be extinct in the wild since the 1970s, is not, in fact, extinct, according to an analysis of the nuclear genomes from a dog population discovered during a recent expedition to the New Guinea highlands. Lady Foot, a Highland wild dog native to New Guinea. Image credit: New Guinea Highland Wild Dog Foundation. The New Guinea singing dog was first described...

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Artistic rendering of American mastodons (Mammut americanum). Image credit: Julius Csotonyi.

American Mastodons Migrated Across Vast Distances Due to Warming Climate, DNA Study Says

Sep 2, 2020 by News Staff

A team of researchers from McMaster University and elsewhere has carried out a phylogeographic study of the extinct American mastodon (Mammut americanum)...

A guard bee standing next to the entrance hole of the Frieseomelitta varia colony. Image credit: Bibafu / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Scientists Sequence Genome of Brazilian Stingless Bee

Sep 1, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

A team of researchers from Brazil has sequenced the nuclear and mitochondrial genomes of Frieseomelitta varia, a stingless bee that has, as a peculiarity,...

Emperor penguins (Aptenodytes forsteri). Image credit: Michael Van Woert / NOAA NESDIS / ORA.

Genetic Researchers Reconstruct Evolutionary History of Penguins

Aug 18, 2020 by News Staff

In a new study, an international team of scientists used 22 newly-sequenced genomes from 18 extant species of penguins to reconstruct the history of their...

A British Pleistocene landscape during an interglacial with cave lion (Panthera spelaea), straight-tusked elephants (Palaeoloxodon antiquus), narrow-nosed rhinoceros (Stephanorhinus hemitoechus), steppe bison (Bison priscus), aurochs (Bison primigenius) and hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius). Image credit: Roman Uchytel, via the Netherlands Institute of Ecology.

Two Subspecies of Cave Lion Identified

Aug 17, 2020 by Sergio Prostak

An international team of researchers led by the Swedish Centre for Palaeogenetics has analyzed 31 mitochondrial genome sequences from the cave lion (Panthera...

This image depicts a Pleistocene landscape in northern Spain with woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius), a woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis), and European cave lions (Panthera leo spelaea) with a reindeer carcass. Image credit: Mauricio Antón.

Climate Change Drove Woolly Rhinoceros to Extinction: DNA Study

Aug 14, 2020 by News Staff

An international team of researchers has sequenced and analyzed a complete nuclear genome and 14 mitochondrial genomes from the extinct woolly rhinoceros...

Denisovans Interbred with Mysterious Archaic Hominin: Study

Aug 7, 2020 by News Staff

In a new study published in the journal PLoS Genetics, researchers analyzed the genomes of two Neanderthals, a Denisovan, and two African humans; and found...

The tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus). Imager credit: Michael Hamilton, Digitaltrails / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Scientists Sequence Genome of Tuatara

Aug 6, 2020 by News Staff

An international team of researchers has sequenced and analyzed the genome of the tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus), the only living member of the reptilian...

A larval sunfish (Mola sp.) collected off New South Wales coast, Australia. Image credit: Kerryn Parkinson / Australian Museum.

Giant Sunfish Develop from Tiny Larvae, Marine Biologists Say

Aug 4, 2020 by News Staff

An international team of marine biologists has for the first time genetically identified a larva of the bump-head sunfish (Mola alexandrini). A larval...

Crawford et al demonstrated that squid genes can be efficiently disrupted using the CRISPR-Cas9 system. Image credit: Crawford et al, doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.06.099.

Scientists Create Transparent Squid Using CRISPR-Cas9 Technology

Aug 3, 2020 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the Marine Biological Laboratory, Harvard University and St. Mary’s College of Maryland has demonstrated efficient gene knockout...

Researchers Observe Formation of Four-Stranded DNA in Living Human Cells

Jul 30, 2020 by News Staff

DNA usually forms the classic double helix shape — two strands wound around each other. Several other structures have been formed in the lab, but...

Neanderthals are commonly thought to have relied on dangerous close range hunting techniques, using non-projectile weapons like the thrusting spears depicted here; this hunting approach is thought to have brought them into violent contact with large mammals, resulting in high levels of injury especially to the head and neck when compared to modern humans; Beier et al found similar head injury levels in both Neanderthals and Upper Paleolithic humans, casting doubt on this hypothesis. Image credit: Gleiver Prieto.

Neanderthals May Have Had Heightened Sensitivity to Pain

Jul 27, 2020 by News Staff

Neanderthals may have experienced more pain than average modern humans do, according to new research led by scientists from the Max Planck Institute for...

Mühlemann et al show that the Vikings also suffered from smallpox. Image credit: Henrietta Elizabeth Marshall.

Diverse Strains of Smallpox Virus Were Widespread in Viking Age, New Study Shows

Jul 25, 2020 by News Staff

Smallpox, caused by the variola virus, is one of the most devastating human diseases. Smallpox killed millions of people but drove Edward Jenner’s invention...

A telomere is the end of a chromosome that protects the interior of a chromosome from damage during cell division. Image credit: Darryl Leja, NHGRI.

Researchers Produce First ‘Telomere-To-Telomere’ Sequence of Human Chromosome

Jul 15, 2020 by News Staff

A team of U.S. and U.K. scientists has generated the end-to-end gapless DNA sequence of the human X chromosome. A telomere is the end of a chromosome that...

Tahitian warrior dugouts from ‘Le Costume Ancien et Moderne’ by Giulio Ferrario, Milan, between 1816 and 1827.

Ancient Polynesians and Native Americans Had Contact Long Before Europeans Arrived

Jul 14, 2020 by News Staff

An international team of genetic researchers has found conclusive evidence for a single contact between Polynesian individuals and a Native American group...

Canadian Eskimo dogs. Illustration by John James Audubon and John Bachman (1845-1848).

Sled Dogs Emerged Over 9,500 Years Ago in Siberia: Study

Jun 26, 2020 by News Staff

An international team of researchers has sequenced the genomes of 10 modern sled dogs, an ancient sled dog and an ancient wolf, both from Siberia, and...

The European medicinal leech (Hirudo medicinalis). Image credit: Sebastian Kvist.

European Medicinal Leech Genome Sequenced

Jun 25, 2020 by News Staff

Researchers have for the first time mapped the genome of the European medicinal leech (Hirudo medicinalis), one of the most prominently used medicinal...

A group of Neanderthals in a cave. Image credit: Tyler B. Tretsven.

Researchers Sequence Genome of Neanderthal Woman from Chagyrskaya Cave

Jun 18, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international team of researchers has sequenced and analyzed the genome of an 80,000-year-old Neanderthal woman from Chagyrskaya Cave in the Altai Mountains,...

Almarri et al present a comprehensive analysis of structural variation in the Human Genome Diversity panel, a high-coverage dataset of 911 samples from 54 diverse worldwide populations, and identify, in total, 126,018 variants, 78% of which were not identified in previous global sequencing projects. Image credit: Almarri et al, doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2020.05.024.

Researchers Identify 126,018 Human Genetic Variations

Jun 12, 2020 by News Staff

A team of scientists from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, the Francis Crick Institute, and EMBL-EBI has created a comprehensive structural variation atlas...

Illustration of one of the early settlers in the Caribbean. Image credit: Tom Björklund.

Humans Colonized Caribbean Islands in Three Waves: Study

Jun 5, 2020 by News Staff

An international team of researchers has sequenced and analyzed the genomes of 93 ancient Caribbean islanders and found evidence of at least three separate...

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