Genetics News

Apr 21, 2023 by Natali Anderson

Hornets are the largest of the social wasps, and are important regulators of insect populations in their native ranges. These insects are also very successful as invasive species, with often devastating economic, ecological and societal effects. Understanding why they are such successful invaders is critical to managing future introductions and minimizing impact on native biodiversity. Critical to the management toolkit is a comprehensive genomic...

Apr 12, 2023 by News Staff

Skates are cartilaginous fish whose body plan features enlarged wing-like pectoral fins, enabling them to thrive in benthic environments. However, the...

Apr 10, 2023 by News Staff

In new research, scientists analyzed 23 ancient genomes of woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius), including one of the oldest known specimens at 700,000...

Mar 28, 2023 by News Staff

Diverse branching forms have evolved multiple times across the tree of life to facilitate resource acquisition and exchange with the environment. As an...

Mar 22, 2023 by News Staff

Humans have extensively shaped animals and plants through domestication. Although wine and table grapes have been important culturally for thousands of...

Mar 9, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Researchers have produced a high-quality chromosome-level genome of the faba bean (Vicia faba), one of the earliest domesticated crops. The faba bean (Vicia...

Mar 2, 2023 by News Staff

Modern humans have populated Europe for more than 45,000 years. However, our knowledge of the genetic relatedness and structure of ancient hunter-gatherers...

Feb 23, 2023 by News Staff

Mathematical ability is moderately heritable, and it is a complex trait which can be evaluated in several different categories. A few genetic studies have...

Feb 22, 2023 by News Staff

Different genetic traits can be beneficial (for example, fending off disease) or harmful (making humans more susceptible to illness), depending on the...

Jan 26, 2023 by Natali Anderson

At least two individuals of the Pallas’s cat (Otocolobus manul) live in Sagarmatha National Park, Mount Everest region, eastern Nepal, according to a...

Jan 16, 2023 by News Staff

Before humans arrived, giant tortoises occurred on many islands in the western Indian Ocean. In new research, Professor Uwe Fritz from the Senckenberg...

Jan 16, 2023 by News Staff

The team’s goal was to assemble a gapless genome for the East Asian finless porpoise (Neophocaena sunameri) to aid in the conservation of this endangered...

Jan 12, 2023 by Natali Anderson

Scientists in Japan have generated a highly contiguous genome assembly of the red variety of Perilla frutescens, an important herbal plant with hundreds...

Jan 6, 2023 by News Staff

Humans, whales, elephants, and naked mole-rats all share a somewhat rare trait for mammals: their bodies are covered with little to no hair. The common...

Jan 5, 2023 by News Staff

Scientists have sequenced the chromosome-level genomes of the great hammerhead (Sphyrna mokarran) and the shortfin mako (Isurus oxyrinchus) sharks. Their...

Dec 26, 2022 by News Staff

Scientists from Tel Aviv University and elsewhere have detected 111,000 new RNA virus genomes in global environmental data from diverse habitats and hosts....

Dec 21, 2022 by News Staff

Scientists from the Institute for Fundamental Biomedical Research at the Biomedical Sciences Research Center ‘Alexander Fleming’ and the Smurfit Institute...

Dec 9, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Modern humans have admixed with multiple species of archaic hominins. Papuans, in particular, owe up to 5% of their genome to Denisovans, a sister group...

Dec 8, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Researchers have analyzed microscopic fragments of 2-million-year-old environmental DNA from of the Kap København Formation in Greenland. The DNA record...

Dec 6, 2022 by News Staff

Cat domestication likely initiated as a symbiotic relationship between wildcats and the peoples of developing agrarian societies in the Fertile Crescent....