Genetics News

Researchers Sequence Genome of Blue Whale

The blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus). Image credit: NOAA.
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 whale (Balaenoptera musculus). Image credit: NOAA. The blue whale is one of the largest animals to have ever existed — an adult can reach up to 33 m (110 feet) and weigh 150 metric tons. Genomic studies of giant animals are of interest to several subfields of biomedical science. Understanding...

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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...

Velazquez-Arcelay et al. found that genetic material from Neanderthal ancestors may have contributed to the propensity of some people today to be early risers, the sort of people who are more comfortable getting up and going to bed earlier. Image credit: Holger Neumann / Neanderthal Museum.

Neanderthals Were Early Risers, New Research Suggests

Dec 14, 2023 by News Staff

When the ancestors of modern Eurasians migrated out of Africa and interbred with Eurasian archaic hominins, namely Neanderthals and Denisovans, DNA of...

Pelage color variation in the North American bison (Bison bison): (a) albino bison; note the white pelage, hypopigmented eyes, and hypopigmented skin particularly around eyes and nose; (b) typical wild-type bison pelage color. Image credit: Stroupe et al., doi: 10.1093/g3journal/jkad156 / National Buffalo Museum / Searle Swedlund of Jamestown, ND.

Researchers Produce High-Quality Genome Assembly for North American Bison

Nov 22, 2023 by News Staff

In their new research, scientists at Texas A&M University developed a highly contiguous chromosome-level reference genome for the North American bison...

The tiger (Panthera tigris). Image credit: Chiem Seherin.

Comparative Genomic Study Sheds New Light on Cat Evolution

Nov 7, 2023 by News Staff

New research led by Texas A&M University and the University of Missouri scientists explains how cats, including domestic cats, lions, tigers, Geoffroy’s...

The European wildcat (Felis silvestris). Image credit: Michael Gäbler / CC BY 3.0 Deed.

European Wildcats and Domestic Cats Did Not Mix Until 1960s, New Research Shows

Nov 7, 2023 by Natali Anderson

In two related studies, researchers from the University of Oxford and elsewhere sequenced the genomes of wildcats and domestic cats, including 48 modern...

Gene expression data reveal the deployment of the patterning system in the sea star Patiria miniata. Image credit: Formery et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-023-06669-2.

Bodies of Starfish and Other Echinoderms are Really Just Heads, New Research Suggests

Nov 2, 2023 by News Staff

For centuries, naturalists have puzzled over what might constitute the head of starfish. When looking at a worm, or a fish, it’s clear which end is the...

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