Genetics News

Echolocation Organs of Toothed Whales Evolved from Jaw Muscles, New Research Suggests

Illustration of the body plan of a toothed whale, with a cross section of the head showing the melon (dark yellow) and the extramandibular fat bodies (light yellow) which are key organs for using sound such as echolocation. Image credit: Takeuchi et al., doi: 10.1016/j.gene.2024.148167.
Apr 8, 2024 by Natali Anderson

Toothed whales have developed specialized echolocation abilities that are crucial for their underwater activities. Acoustic fat bodies — the melon in the whale forehead, extramandibular fat bodies alongside the jawbone, and intramandibular fat bodies within the jawbone — are vital for echolocation. In a new study, researchers at Hokkaido University analyzed DNA sequences of genes expressed in acoustic fat bodies in two toothed whale species,...

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The updated bird family tree delineating 93 million years of evolutionary relationships between 363 bird species. Image credit: Jon Fjeldså / Josefin Stiller.

Scientists Create Largest and Most Detailed Bird Family Tree to Date

Apr 1, 2024 by Natali Anderson

The updated family tree, detailed in two complementary papers published today in the journal Nature and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,...

The facial reconstruction (left) and the portrait (right) of the Chinese Emperor Wu of the Northern Zhou dynasty. Image credit: Du et al., doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.02.059.

Scientists Sequence Genome, Reconstruct Face of Chinese Emperor Wu

Mar 28, 2024 by News Staff

A team of researchers from Fudan University and elsewhere has successfully generated a genome of the Chinese Emperor Wu (Wudi) of the Xianbei-led Northern...

Saccharum officinarum. Image credit: Ton Rulkens / CC BY-SA 2.0 Deed.

Scientists Sequence Genome of Sugarcane

Mar 28, 2024 by Natali Anderson

Sugarcane, the world’s most harvested crop by tonnage, has shaped global history, trade and geopolitics, and is currently responsible for 80% of sugar...

The Etruscan shrew (Suncus etruscus). Image credit: Trebol-a / CC BY-SA 3.0 Deed.

Scientists Decode Etruscan Shrew Genome

Mar 20, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

Scientists have sequenced and analyzed the genome of the Etruscan shrew (Suncus etruscus), one of the world’s smallest mammals, with an average body...

The blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus). Image credit: NOAA.

Researchers Sequence Genome of Blue Whale

Mar 19, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international team of scientists has produced a reference-quality, long-read-based genome assembly for the blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus). The blue...

The green Anjou fruit. Image credit: USA Pears.

Scientists Sequence Genome of D’Anjou Pear

Mar 18, 2024 by Natali Anderson

Researchers from the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology and elsewhere have generated a chromosome-scale genome assembly for the d’Anjou pear, a...

Qi Zai, the only brown panda living in captivity. Image credit: Ailie HM / CC BY-SA 4.0 Deed.

Scientists Solve Mystery of Brown Giant Pandas

Mar 6, 2024 by Natali Anderson

Brown-and-white giant pandas are distinct coat color mutants found exclusively in the Qinling Mountains of China. Qi Zai, the only brown panda living in...

The function of CLV3 in Arabidopsis and tomato is conserved despite extreme divergence in cis-regulatory sequences. Image credit: Ciren et al., doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1011174.

Plant Scientists Shed Light on 125-Million-Year-Old Genetic Mystery

Mar 5, 2024 by News Staff

Researchers at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory have discovered that two distantly related model plants, Arabidopsis thaliana and the tomato (Solanum lycopersicum),...

Lysandra bellargus. Image credit: Eric Sylvestre.

Study: Butterfly and Moth Genomes Have Remained Largely Intact through 250M Years of Evolution

Feb 26, 2024 by News Staff

This stability exists despite the incredible diversity seen today in wing patterns, sizes, and caterpillar forms across over 160,000 species globally,...

Ghosh et al. suggest that retroviral endogenization played a prominent role in the emergence of vertebrate myelin. Image credit: Ghosh et al., doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2024.01.011.

Study: Ancient Retroviruses Shaped Vertebrate Brains

Feb 19, 2024 by News Staff

Biologists from Altos Labs-Cambridge Institute of Science, the University of Cambridge and elsewhere have found that a retrovirus-derived genetic element...

The night parrot (Pezoporus occidentalis). Image credit: Arianna Urso / Western Australian Museum.

Scientists Sequence Genome of Elusive Night Parrot

Feb 14, 2024 by News Staff

Researchers at CSIRO have sequenced the first genome of the night parrot (Pezoporus occidentalis), one of the world’s rarest and most elusive birds. The...

Stratigraphy with location of Homo sapiens bones, map of LRJ sites and stone tools from the site of Ranis, Germany. Image credit: Mylopotamitaki et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-023-06923-7.

Homo sapiens Reached Northern Europe by 45,000 Years Ago, Scientists Say

Jan 31, 2024 by News Staff

Homo sapiens associated with the Lincombian-Ranisian-Jerzmanowician culture were present in central and northwestern Europe long before the extinction...

A photograph of the tardigrade Ramazzottius varieornatus, in the center of a phylogeny of CAHS, the largest of the six desiccation-related protein families analyzed by Fleming et al. Image credit: Kazuharu Arakawa, Keio Institute of Advanced Biosciences.

New Research Sheds Light on Evolutionary History of Tardigrade Extremotolerance

Jan 30, 2024 by News Staff

Tardigrades, also known as water bears, can tolerate high doses of radiation, low-oxygen environments, desiccation, and both high and low temperatures...

Coffea arabica. Image credit: Fadhil Asqar.

Scientists Produce Chromosome-Scale Genome Sequence for Arabica Coffee

Jan 24, 2024 by Natali Anderson

Researchers from the Istituto di Genomica Applicata and elsewhere have released an improved genome assembly for Arabica coffee (Coffea arabica), a hybrid...

Chirodota heheva in the Gulf of Mexico. Image credit: Aquapix and Expedition to the Deep Slope 2007.

Scientists Sequence Genome of Hydrothermal Vent-Dwelling Sea Cucumber

Jan 3, 2024 by Natali Anderson

Researchers in China have mapped the entire genome of Chiridota heheva, a species of sea cucumber collected at a depth of 2,428 m during a submarine trip...

Confocal micrograph of Epulopiscium viviparus. Image credit: Sannino et al., doi: 10.1073/pnas.2306160120.

Researchers Sequence Genome of Giant Symbiotic Bacterium

Dec 19, 2023 by News Staff

Giant bacteria are intriguing, underexplored biological enigmas. Many well-studied giants use abundant internal small-molecule stores and/or light to satisfy...

Transcriptomic cell-type taxonomy of the whole mouse brain. Image credit: Yao et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-023-06812-z.

Researchers Create Comprehensive Map of Mouse Brain

Dec 18, 2023 by News Staff

The mouse is the most commonly used vertebrate experimental model in neuroscience research, and the new atlas paves the way for a greater understanding...

The human genome contains approximately half a million copies of LINE-1. Image credit: Baldwin et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-023-06947-z.

Scientists Reveal Structure of Ancient Virus-Like Genetic Element

Dec 18, 2023 by News Staff

The Long Interspersed Element-1 (LINE-1) retrotransposon is an ‘ancient genetic parasite’ that has written around one third of the human genome through...

Chia seeds. Image credit: Valeria Lu.

Researchers Sequence Chia Genome

Dec 14, 2023 by Natali Anderson

Chia (Salvia hispanica) is one of the most popular nutrition-rich foods and pseudocereal crops of the mint family Lamiaceae. Chia seeds are a rich source...

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