Genetics News

Genetic Link between Brain and Face Shape Discovered

Naqvi et al. recently developed a data-driven approach to phenotyping complex, multidimensional traits; this multivariate approach, when applied to facial surface images, revealed numerous genomic loci with no previously known role in human face shape variation; in the new study, the team implemented this approach to discover associations between common genetic variants and brain shape, using MRI data from middle-aged participants in the UK Biobank. Image credit: Gerd Altmann.
Apr 6, 2021 by News Staff

In a genome-wide association study involving 19,644 individuals of European ancestry, an international team of researchers identified 472 genomic regions, or loci, that influence brain shape, of which 76 are also linked to face shape; these loci don’t influence cognitive ability, further debunking beliefs that intelligence can be assessed by facial features. Naqvi et al. recently developed a data-driven approach to phenotyping complex, multidimensional...

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Silverleaf whiteflies (Bemisia tabaci) carry a plant-derived phenolic glucoside malonyltransferase gene BtPMaT1, which enables the insects to neutralize phenolic glycosides in host plants. Image credit: Xia et al., doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2021.02.014.

Silverleaf Whiteflies Carry Plant-Derived Detoxification Gene, New Study Shows

Mar 26, 2021 by News Staff

The silverleaf whitefly (Bemisia tabaci) incorporated a gene called BtPMaT1 from plants into its genome roughly 35 million years ago and now uses it to...

Reconstruction of Homo floresiensis. Image credit: Kinez Riza / Atelier Elisabeth Daynes, Sangiran Museum.

Southeast Asians Carry DNA of ‘Mysterious Southern Denisovans’

Mar 23, 2021 by News Staff

The hominin fossil record of Island Southeast Asia (ISEA) indicates that at least two super-archaic species, Homo luzonensis and Homo floresiensis, were...

Dry age-related macular degeneration is one of the most common causes of vision loss in people over the age of 50. Image credit: Pexels.

Researchers Identify 50 New Eye Color Genes

Mar 15, 2021 by News Staff

The largest genome-wide association study for eye color to date, involving up to 192,986 European participants from 10 populations, has identified 124...

Tagged peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus). Image credit: Andrew Dixon.

Biologists Find Evidence of Migration Gene in Birds

Mar 9, 2021 by News Staff

Millions of migratory birds occupy seasonally favorable breeding grounds in the Arctic, but scientists know little about the formation, maintenance and...

Reconstruction of the cave bear (Ursus spelaeus). Image credit: Sergio de la Larosa / CC BY-SA 3.0.

360,000-Year-Old DNA Sheds New Light on Evolutionary History of Cave Bears

Feb 25, 2021 by News Staff

An international team of researchers has extracted and sequenced DNA from a 360,000-year-old petrous bone of the extinct cave bear Ursus kudarensis found...

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

Researchers Sequence Mitochondrial Genome of Early Dog from Alaska

Feb 24, 2021 by News Staff

Scientists have extracted and sequenced mitochondrial DNA from a partial femur of an ancient dog that lived in Alaska 10,150 years ago. Their results,...

Life reconstruction of the steppe mammoth (Mammuthus trogontherii). Image credit: Beth Zaiken / Centre for Palaeogenetics.

Researchers Sequence 1.2-Million-Year-Old Mammoth DNA

Feb 17, 2021 by News Staff

An international team of scientists has sequenced and analyzed DNA from three mammoth specimens, two of which are more than one million years old. The...

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...

A portrait of a juvenile female Denisovan based on a skeletal profile reconstructed from ancient DNA methylation maps. Image credit: Maayan Harel.

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...

Ukrainian cossacks by Andriy Liah.

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...

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