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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...

Narwhals (Monodon monoceros) are one of three whale species found only in the Arctic and are well-known for their tusks. Image credit: Carsten Egevang.

Narwhal Genome Sequenced

May 3, 2019 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the Natural History Museum of Denmark, the University of Copenhagen, Greenland Institute of Natural Resources and Malaysia’s...

Leaves and freshly dug pods of Arachis hypogaea, Stuckey, South Carolina. Image credit: Dave, aka Pollinator / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Researchers Sequence Genome of Cultivated Peanut

May 2, 2019 by News Staff

An international team of scientists has produced the high-quality genomic sequence for the cultivated peanut (Arachis hypogaea), an important grain legume...

The black-tailed bumblebee (Bombus melanopygus). Image credit: Walter Siegmund.

Researchers Identify ‘Color Switch’ Gene in Black-Tailed Bumblebees

May 1, 2019 by News Staff

A research team led by Penn State scientists has identified the gene responsible for the color switch between the red and black color forms of the black-tailed...

Isarachnanthus nocturnes. Image credit: Stampar et al, doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-42621-z.

Tube-Dwelling Anemone Has Biggest Mitochondrial Genome Ever Sequenced

Apr 30, 2019 by News Staff

The banded tube-dwelling anemone (Isarachnanthus nocturnes), a sea creature that resembles a prehistoric flower, now holds the record for the largest mitochondrial...

The Chinese skullcap (Scutellaria baicalensis). Image credit: Andrey Korzun / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Chinese Skullcap Genome Sequenced

Apr 25, 2019 by News Staff

A team of geneticists from the John Innes Centre and the Chinese Academy of Sciences has produced the first high-quality genomic sequence for the Chinese...

Wang et al predicted a set of high-confidence risk genes for schizophrenia; these genes account for a significantly enriched heritability; they are predominantly expressed in brain tissues, especially prenatally, and are enriched for targets of approved drugs, suggesting opportunities to reposition existing drugs for schizophrenia. Image credit: Gerd Altmann.

Researchers Identify 104 High-Risk Genes for Schizophrenia

Apr 23, 2019 by News Staff

A research team led by Vanderbilt University scientists has identified a set of high-confidence risk genes for schizophrenia. The team’s results support...

Denisovans were probably dark-skinned, unlike the pale Neandertals. The picture shows a Neanderthal man. Image credit: Mauro Cutrona.

Two Independent Denisovan Lineages Contributed to Modern Papuan Genomes: Study

Apr 12, 2019 by News Staff

According to a new study published in the journal Cell, modern Papuans carry hundreds of gene variants from two Denisovan lineages — distinct from...

This image depicts a Pleistocene landscape in northern Spain with woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius), equids, a woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis), and European cave lions (Panthera leo spelaea). Image credit: Mauricio Anton.

Study: Neanderthals, Woolly Mammoths Shared Genetic Traits

Apr 10, 2019 by News Staff

Neanderthals and woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius) co-existed in similar geographic and environmental European settings during the Middle and Upper...

Durum wheat (Triticum turgidum ssp. durum). Image credit: Christine Dautin.

Durum Wheat Genome Sequenced

Apr 9, 2019 by News Staff

A multinational team of researchers has successfully sequenced and analyzed the genome of durum wheat (Triticum turgidum ssp. durum), a cereal grain mainly...

Members of the genus Juglans are wind-pollinated trees in the family Juglandaceae.

Scientists Sequence Genomes of English Walnut and Its Wild Relative

Apr 2, 2019 by News Staff

A research team led by scientists from the University of California, Davis, has used a unique approach to sequence the genomes of the English walnut (Juglans...

Depiction of the Jarijari (Nyeri Nyeri) people near Merbein engaged in recreational activities, including a type of Aboriginal football, by William Blandowski & Gustav Mützel, 1857.

Hepatitis B DNA Helps Trace History and Movement of First Australians

Mar 21, 2019 by News Staff

It’s widely accepted that continental Sahul, the combined landmass of Australia, New Guinea and Tasmania, was settled very early in human history. But...

Yamagata et al succeeded in observing the signs of the biological activity of 28,140-year-old mammoth nuclei in mouse oocytes. In this image, proteins that form chromosomes (red) and proteins that form dividing spindles (green) gather around a mammoth cell nucleus (upper right) in the mouse oocyte. Image credit: Yamagata et al, doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-40546-1.

Researchers ‘Revive’ Woolly Mammoth Cell Nuclei

Mar 14, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

In 2010, the 28,140-year-old partial carcass of a woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius), nicknamed ‘Yuka,’ was found in Siberian permafrost. Now a...

Lane et al identified 57 loci for self-reported insomnia symptoms in the UK Biobank (n = 453,379) and confirmed their effects on self-reported insomnia symptoms in the HUNT Study (n = 14,923 cases and 47,610 controls), physician-diagnosed insomnia in the Partners Biobank (n = 2,217 cases and 14,240 controls), and accelerometer-derived measures of sleep efficiency and sleep duration in the UK Biobank (n = 83,726). Image credit: Medical Gallery of Mikael Häggström, 2014 / WikiJournal of Medicine, doi: 10.15347/wjm/2014.008.

Researchers Identify New Gene Regions Associated with Insomnia

Mar 11, 2019 by News Staff

Insomnia is a common disorder linked with adverse long-term medical and psychiatric outcomes. It affects 10-20% of adults, and several twin and family...

The Antarctic blackfin icefish (Chaenocephalus aceratus). Image credit: Thomas Desvignes.

Icefish Genome Reveals Adaptations to Extreme Antarctic Environments

Mar 4, 2019 by News Staff

A multinational team of researchers has successfully sequenced the genome of the Antarctic blackfin icefish (Chaenocephalus aceratus), opening a genetic...

Sesquizygosis -- whereby twins are genetically identical to each other with respect to one parent but differ from each other by approximately 50% with respect to the composition of DNA inherited from the other parent -- is a third form of twinning. Genetically, sesquizygosis can be considered to be on a continuum between monozygosis and dizygosis. It probably arises after heterogoneic assortment of two paternal genomes and one maternal genome during the first postzygotic cleavage division. Image credit: Gabbett et al, doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1701313.

Extremely Rare Sesquizygotic Twins Identified in Australia

Mar 4, 2019 by News Staff

Twins are traditionally classified as monozygotic (identical) or dizygotic (fraternal). Monozygotic twinning results in genetically identical individuals,...

This illustration shows the structure of hachimoji DNA, which uses the four informational ingredients of regular DNA (green, red, blue, yellow) in addition to four new ones (cyan, pink, purple, orange). Image credit: Indiana University School of Medicine.

Researchers Create Eight-Letter Genetic System: Hachimoji DNA

Feb 25, 2019 by News Staff

DNA is naturally composed of four basic molecules called nucleotides (commonly known as ‘letters’) — A (adenine), T (thymine), C (cytosine) and...

The great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias). Image credit: Byron Dilkes, Danah Divers.

Researchers Sequence Genome of Great White Shark

Feb 19, 2019 by News Staff

An international team of scientists from the United States and Europe has successfully sequenced the genome of the great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias)...