Genetics News

Oct 19, 2020 by News Staff

An international team of scientists has sequenced and analyzed the entire nuclear genome of the scimitar-toothed cat Homotherium latidens. Their results demonstrate that this extinct species was highly divergent from all living cat species and did not undergo any detectable gene flow with living cat species after their initial diversification 14 million years ago. A pair of Homotherium latidens chasing an ancient equid. Image credit: University of...

Oct 14, 2020 by News Staff

An international team of scientists from China, Taiwan and the United States has successfully sequenced and analyzed the genomes of the Chinese banyan...

Oct 7, 2020 by News Staff

The male-specific Y chromosome plays a critical role in sex determination and male fertility. However, because of its repetitive nature, it is frequently...

Sep 29, 2020 by News Staff

A team of scientists from Hong Kong, the United Kingdom and the United States has sequenced and assembled the chromosomal-level genomes of two very different...

Sep 25, 2020 by News Staff

The genomes of our closest relatives, Neanderthals and Denisovans, have been sequenced and compared with that of modern humans. However, most archaic individuals...

Sep 24, 2020 by News Staff

In the popular imagination, Vikings were fearsome blonde-haired warriors from Scandinavia who used longboats to carry out raids across Europe in a brief...

Sep 24, 2020 by News Staff

A team of researchers from Imperial College London, the University of Oxford and CABI has successfully sequenced the genome of Alexander Fleming’s original...

Sep 23, 2020 by Natali Anderson

A team of scientists from Europe has sequenced and analyzed the nearly complete genome of the wels catfish (Silurus glanis), one of the largest freshwater...

Sep 9, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international team of scientists has successfully extracted and sequenced the mitochondrial DNA from an 80,000-year-old adult Neanderthal tooth found...

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,...

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)...

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,...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...