Genetics News

Scientists Identify Four Genetic Regions Associated with Left-Handedness

The language brain regions were more coordinated in left-handers between the two sides of the brain (in green and orange) and were also connected by the white matter tracts influenced by one genetic region related to handedness (in blue). Image credit: Gwenaëlle Douaud, University of Oxford.
Sep 11, 2019 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the University of Oxford has identified four regions of the human genome associated with left-handedness in the general population and linked their effects with brain architecture. The language brain regions were more coordinated in left-handers between the two sides of the brain (in green and orange) and were also connected by the white matter tracts influenced by one genetic region related to handedness (in blue). Image...

read more...
Hoaxed photo of the Loch Ness ‘monster’ from April 21, 1934.

Scientists Find Significant Amount of Eel DNA in Loch Ness

Sep 10, 2019 by News Staff

An international team of researchers has announced the results of investigations into the environmental DNA (eDNA) present in Loch Ness, a large freshwater...

An artist’s reconstruction of the gateway and drain at the ancient city of Harappa. Image credit: Chris Sloan.

Researchers Sequence Genome of Ancient Harappan Woman

Sep 9, 2019 by News Staff

A multinational team of scientists has sequenced the first genome of an individual from the Harappan Civilization. The genome, which belongs to a woman...

Weekend recovery sleep doesn’t prevent weight gain or reduce insulin sensitivity. Image credit: Wok & Apix.

Researchers Identify Second Short-Sleep Gene

Sep 4, 2019 by News Staff

Sleep is crucial for our survival, and many conditions, including cancer, autoimmune disorders, cardiovascular disease, and Alzheimer’s, are linked to...

Albino (left) and wild-type (right) anole lizards. Image credit: Rasys et al, doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2019.07.089.

Researchers Create Albino Lizards Using CRISPR-Cas9 Gene Editing

Sep 3, 2019 by News Staff

A team of scientists at the University of Georgia has used CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing to engineer brown anoles (Anolis sagrei) with transmissible mutations...

A basket of peas (Pisum sativum) in pods in Vinnytsia district, Ukraine. Image credit: George Chernilevsky.

Scientists Sequence Genome of Common Pea

Sep 3, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international consortium of researchers has sequenced the genome of the common pea (Pisum sativum), the second most important grain legume in the world...

Avocado Genome Sequenced

Aug 7, 2019 by News Staff

A multinational team of researchers has sequenced the genomes of Mexican, Guatemalan and West Indian avocados, and the most commercially popular hybrid...

A canid in Cassell’s Natural History. Image credit: Peter Martin Duncan / North Carolina State University / NCSU Libraries.

Scientists Sequence RNA of 14,300-Year-Old Wolf Puppy

Aug 1, 2019 by News Staff

An international team of scientists has isolated and sequenced RNA from the permafrost-preserved liver, cartilage and muscle tissue of a 14,300-year-old...

Researchers Sequence Genome of Komodo Dragon

Jul 30, 2019 by News Staff

An international team of scientists has mapped and analyzed the entire genome of the Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis), the largest extant monitor lizard. The...

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

Humans Interbred with Four Extinct Hominin Species, Research Finds

Jul 29, 2019 by News Staff

As anatomically modern Homo sapiens migrated out of Africa and around the rest of the world, they met and interbred with at least four different hominin...

African farmers domesticated the cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) from its wild form, in a process of unconscious selection over many centuries. Domesticated cowpea has much larger seeds that have lost its dormancy of the wild progenitor. Image credit: Ton Rulkens / CC BY-SA 2.0.

Cowpea Genome Sequenced

Jul 10, 2019 by News Staff

A large international team of researchers has sequenced the genome of the cowpea (Vigna unguiculata), a major crop for worldwide food and nutritional security,...

Left: captive Philistine warriors from a wall relief at Medinet Habu, Egypt, 1185-1152 BC. Right: an artist's conception of a Philistine warrior. Image credit: John Shumate.

Biblical Philistines Came from Europe, Ancient DNA Reveals

Jul 4, 2019 by News Staff

A team of scientists from Germany, the United States and Korea has sequenced and analyzed DNA of 10 Bronze and Iron Age individuals from the ancient Mediterranean...

Reconstruction of a Neanderthal. Image credit: Neanderthal Museum.

DNA of Early Neanderthals Reveals 80,000 Years of Genetic Continuity in Europe

Jun 27, 2019 by News Staff

An international team of scientists has sequenced the nuclear genomes of two Neanderthals who lived in Europe around 120,000 years ago. They found that...

Almond kernels.

Almond Genome Sequenced

Jun 17, 2019 by News Staff

The domesticated almond tree (Prunus amygdalus) has been feeding humans for millennia. Derivation from the wild, bitter, and toxic almond required loss...

Scientists Sequence Spider Glue Genes

Jun 13, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

Researchers have published the first-ever complete sequences of two genes that allow spiders to produce glue, a modified version of silk that keeps a spider’s...

Extant and extinct sloths: in the tree, going clockwise from left -- extinct West Indian sloth (Acratocnus), extant three-fingered sloth or ai (Bradypus), and extant two-fingered sloth or unau (Choloepus); from left to right on the ground are representative giant ground sloths -- Mylodon (South America), Megalonyx (North America), and Megatherium (South America). According to the new molecular studies, Bradypus is most closely related to a group that includes Megalonyx and Megatherium. Choloepus is related to Mylodon, but Acratocnus and its West Indian kin represent a separate branch that is distinct from that of all other sloths. Human for scale: 1.85 m. Image credit: Jorge Blanco.

DNA and Protein Studies Shake Up Sloth Family Tree

Jun 7, 2019 by News Staff

Sloths once roamed the Americas, ranging from cat-sized animals that lived in trees all the way up to giant ground sloths. The only species we know today,...

A scientific illustration of the Upward Sun River camp in what is now Interior Alaska. Image credit: Eric S. Carlson / Ben A. Potter.

Genetic Analysis Reveals Previously Unknown Group of Ancient Siberians

Jun 7, 2019 by News Staff

Northeastern Siberia has been inhabited by humans for more than 40,000 years but its deep population history remains poorly understood. In a new study,...

Genetic variation may have contributed to our ability to domesticate dogs and other animals. Image credit: Sven Lachmann.

Being Dog Lover Could Be in Your Genetic Makeup

Jun 3, 2019 by News Staff

In a study published in the journal Scientific Reports, an international team of researchers from Sweden and the United Kingdom assessed the ‘heritability...

Prehistoric rock paintings in Manda Guéli Cave in the Ennedi Mountains, Chad, Central Africa. Image credit: David Stanley / CC BY 2.0.

Ancient DNA Study Tells Story of East Africa’s First Herders and Farmers

May 30, 2019 by News Staff

How food production entered sub-Saharan Africa some 5,000 years ago and the ways in which herding and farming spread through the continent in ancient times...

Gao et al present a tomato pan-genome constructed using genome sequences of 725 phylogenetically and geographically representative accessions, revealing 4,873 genes absent from the reference genome. Image credit: Hans Braxmeier.

Scientists Assemble Pan-Genome of Cultivated Tomato and Its Wild Relatives

May 14, 2019 by News Staff

An international team of researchers led by Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research and the U.S. Department of Agriculture- Agricultural Research Service...

© 2011-2026. Sci.News. All Rights Reserved. | Back to top