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The white-faced capuchin (Cebus imitator) in Panama. Image credit: Charles J. Sharp, Sharp Photography, sharpphotography.co.uk / CC BY-SA 4.0.

Scientists Sequence Genome of White-Faced Capuchin

Feb 15, 2021 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the United Kingdom and Canada has sequenced the genome of the white-faced capuchin (Cebus imitator), a medium-sized New World...

Latimeria chalumnae off Pumula on the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast, South Africa, on November 22, 2019. Image credit: Bruce Henderson, doi: 10.17159/sajs.2020/7806.

Coelacanths Are Not ‘Living Fossils,’ New Study Shows

Feb 10, 2021 by News Staff

The primitive-looking coelacanth has long been regarded as a ‘living fossil,’ with extant specimens looking very similar to fossils dating back to...

Native Americans Inherited Lip Shape Gene from Denisovans

Feb 8, 2021 by News Staff

In a genome-wide association study of 6,169 Latin American individuals, an international team of scientists identified 32 gene regions (loci) that influenced...

Wolffia australiana. Image credit: Sowjanya Sree / Philomena Chu.

Scientists Sequence Genome of World’s Fastest-Growing Plant

Feb 4, 2021 by News Staff

An international team of researchers has generated and analyzed draft reference genomes of Wolffia australiana, which has the smallest genome size in its...

Sapria himalayana can found in Southeast Asia. Image credit: Charles Davis / Davis Lab, Harvard University.

Scientists Sequence Genome of Rare Parasitic Flowering Plant

Jan 25, 2021 by News Staff

An international team of researchers has sequenced and analyzed the genome of Sapria himalayana, a rare holoparasitic flowering plant in the family Rafflesiaceae....

The Australian lungfish (Neoceratodus forsteri) at the National Zoo & Aquarium in Canberra, Australia. Image credit: Mitch Ames / CC BY-SA 4.0.

Australian Lungfish Genome Sequenced

Jan 21, 2021 by Natali Anderson

The Australian lungfish (Neoceratodus forsteri), a species of lungfish native to the Mary and Burnett River systems in south-eastern Queensland, has a...

Somewhere in Southwestern North America during the Late Pleistocene, a pack of dire wolves (Canis dirus) are feeding on their bison kill, while a pair of gray wolves (Canis lupus) approach in the hopes of scavenging. One of the dire wolves rushes in to confront the gray wolves, and their confrontation allows a comparison of the bigger, larger-headed and reddish-brown dire wolf with its smaller, gray relative. Image credit: Mauricio Antón / Nature.

Dire Wolves Split from Living Canids 5.7 Million Years Ago: Study

Jan 15, 2021 by News Staff

Dire wolves (Canis dirus) are considered to be one of the most common and widespread large carnivores in Pleistocene America, yet relatively little is...

Researchers Put Ukraine on Global Genome Map

Jan 14, 2021 by News Staff

People of Ukraine carry many previously known and several novel genetic variants with clinical and functional importance that in many cases show allele...

The platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) in Tasmania, Australia. Image credit: Klaus / CC BY-SA 2.0.

Researchers Sequence Platypus and Echidna Genomes

Jan 7, 2021 by News Staff

Monotremes (egg-laying mammals) are the only extant mammalian outgroup to therians (marsupial and eutherian animals) and provide key insights into mammalian...

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

Ancient DNA Reveals Genetic History of Caribbean World

Dec 27, 2020 by News Staff

In a new study of the genetic history of the pre-contact Caribbean, researchers analyzed genome-wide DNA data from 174 ancient individuals who lived in...

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

First Mariana Islanders Came from Philippines, New Study Shows

Dec 23, 2020 by News Staff

In new research, researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Australian National University and the University of Guam analyzed...

Atopopsyllus cionus may carry evidence of an ancestral strain of the bubonic plague (Yersinia pestis). Image credit: George Poinar Jr.

Fleas are Parasitic Scorpionflies, Genetic Analysis Reveals

Dec 23, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Fleas are not a separate insect order, as previously thought, and are a lineage of scorpionflies, which evolved when they started feeding on the blood...

Meachen et al. report detailed morphometric, isotopic, and genetic analyses of Zhùr that reveal details of her appearance, evolutionary relationships to other wolves and short life-history and ecology. Image credit: Meachen et al., doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.11.011.

57,000-Year-Old Frozen Remains of Wolf Pup Found in Canada

Dec 22, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

An ancient wolf pup, named Zhùr (means ‘wolf’ in the Hän language of the local Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in people), lived approximately 57,000 years...

Three roughly 2,000-year-old corn cobs from the El Gigante rock shelter site in Honduras. Image credit: Thomas Harper.

Ancient DNA Sheds New Light on Corn Domestication

Dec 15, 2020 by News Staff

The domestication of corn (Zea mays ssp. mays), a global food staple with great economic and cultural importance, began in southwestern Mexico 9,000 years...

Aspyn Palatnick holding the world’s first mobile genetics laboratory at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory’s 125th anniversary Open House. Image credit: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

Researchers Develop Handheld DNA Sequencer

Dec 8, 2020 by News Staff

By pairing a new app called iGenomics with a handheld DNA sequencer, users can easily align and analyze relatively small genomes, like those of viral pathogens. Aspyn...

Solanum pimpinellifolium in Botanisk tidsskrift, 1872.

Researchers Sequence Genome of Tomato’s Wild Ancestor

Dec 2, 2020 by News Staff

Scientists at Boyce Thompson Institute have produced a high-quality chromosome-scale genome sequence for the currant tomato Solanum pimpinellifolium, the...

When mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSCs) age, the transcription factor GATA6 is increasingly produced in the cell to induce aging response; by transcription factor-based cellular reprogramming, aged MSCs are rejuvenated with a reduction in GATA6 effects on cellular aging. Image credit: AlphaMed Press.

Scientists Identify Gene Responsible for Aging of Human Cells

Dec 1, 2020 by News Staff

A gene called GATA6 (GATA binding protein 6) regulates aging of human mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSCs), according to new research from the University...

The occasional use of stone tools as ‘strike-a-lights’ was a technocultural feature shared among Neanderthals in France.

Neanderthals Were as Good at Tolerating Smoke-Related Toxins as Early Modern Humans: Study

Nov 30, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genetic study conducted by researchers from Leiden University and Wageningen University thoroughly debunks previous claims that a genetic mutation...

Su et al. report a multiplexed error-robust fluorescence in situ hybridization (MERFISH)-based method for genome-scale chromatin tracing and demonstrate simultaneous imaging of more than 1,000 genomic loci and nascent transcripts of more than 1,000 genes together with landmark nuclear structures. Image credit: Su et al., doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2020.07.032.

Researchers Capture High-Resolution 3D Images of Human Chromosomes

Nov 20, 2020 by News Staff

A team of scientists at Harvard University has developed a new imaging technology for visualizing organization of chromatin, a substance within a chromosome...