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A spectral tarsier (Tarsius tarsier) feeding on a grasshopper in Tangkoko National Park, Northern Sulawesi, Indonesia. Tarsiers have five chitinase genes to digest the high amount of chitin in their insectivorous diet, which likely represents the ancestral condition of all placental animals, including humans. Image credit: Quentin Martinez / University of California, Berkeley.

Common Ancestor of All Placental Mammals Was Insect-Eater: Study

May 21, 2018 by News Staff

Humans are known to have one functioning and three non-functioning chitinase genes — those that make an enzyme that digests the insect exoskeletal...

Lipson et al identify at least three major waves of human migration into Southeast Asia over the last 50,000 years.

Ancient DNA Study Reveals Prehistory of Southeast Asia

May 21, 2018 by News Staff

The first whole-genome analysis of ancient human DNA from Southeast Asia, defined as the area east of India and south of China, identifies at least three...

Meta-Analysis Identifies 30 New Genetic Risk Factors for Major Depression

Apr 30, 2018 by News Staff

A new genome-wide association meta-analysis has identified 44 genomic variants (loci) that have a significant association with major depression. Of these...

Indigenous Bajau People Evolved Larger Spleens for Free-Diving

Apr 25, 2018 by News Staff

The indigenous Bajau people of Southeast Asia spend their whole lives at sea, working 8-hr diving shifts with traditional equipment and short breaks to...

Zeng et al detected signatures of natural selection in the genetic architecture of 23 complex traits.

Study: Natural Selection Still at Work in Humans

Apr 19, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of scientists from Australia, the Netherlands, Estonia and the United States has detected significant signatures of natural selection...

Hysi et al identified 123 autosomal and one X-chromosome loci significantly associated with hair color. Image credit: Kristyna Matlachova.

Scientists Identify 124 New Genes that Determine Hair Color

Apr 18, 2018 by News Staff

Researchers have discovered 124 genes that play a major role in determining human hair color variation. The findings were published online this week in...

CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing can cause hundreds of unintended mutations. Image credit: Lisichik.

‘Junk’ DNA Plays Crucial Role in Holding Genome Together: Study

Apr 12, 2018 by News Staff

A new study published online in the journal eLife indicates that satellite DNA — commonly called ‘junk’ DNA — performs the vital function...

A pair of platypuses (Ornithorhynchus anatinus). Image credit: Heinrich Harder.

New Research Provides Insights into Platypus Population Structure and History

Apr 3, 2018 by News Staff

The platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) is an egg-laying mammal which, alongside the echidna, occupies a unique place in the mammalian family tree. The...

Dry age-related macular degeneration is one of the most common causes of vision loss in people over the age of 50. Image credit: Pexels.

New Genetic Cause of Posterior Polymorphous Corneal Dystrophy Discovered

Mar 23, 2018 by News Staff

A new genetic cause of an autosomal-dominant corneal endothelial dystrophy has been discovered in a study led by University College London scientists. Posterior...

Pilot et al showed that around 60% of Eurasian grey wolf genomes carried small blocks of the DNA of domestic dogs, suggesting that wolves cross-bred with dogs in past generations. Image credit: J. C.

New Study Reveals Extent of Cross-Breeding between Domestic Dogs and Wolves

Mar 22, 2018 by News Staff

University of Lincoln researcher Malgorzata Pilot and colleagues have found small blocks of dog ancestry in the genomes of 62% Eurasian grey wolves. Published...

Neanderthals in a cave. Image credit: Tyler B. Tretsven.

Researchers Uncover Genetic History of Late Neanderthals

Mar 22, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of scientists has sequenced the genomes of five Neanderthals who lived around 47,000 to 39,000 years ago (that is, late Neanderthals),...

Parkinson’s disease. Image credit: Blausen Gallery 2014 / Wikiversity Journal of Medicine, doi: 10.15347/wjm/2014.010.

Gene Mutation Associated with Parkinson’s Initiates Disease Outside of Brain

Mar 22, 2018 by News Staff

A mutation in the leucine rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2) gene — the most common cause of inherited Parkinson’s disease — alters cells circulating...

Empathy is the ability to recognize and respond to the emotional states of other individuals. Image credit: John Hain.

Our Genes Play Role in Empathy: Study

Mar 21, 2018 by News Staff

How empathic we are is partly a result of our genes, according to the results of the largest genome-wide association study of its kind. Empathy is the...

Phenotypes of osteoarthritis: evidence suggests that patients with osteoarthritis fall into multiple phenotypic subgroups defined on the basis of the main driver of disease, one of which is a distinct metabolic phenotype, although all osteoarthritis phenotypes probably involve metabolic alterations; cartilage, bone and synovium are all affected by external and internal drivers of disease such as inflammation, injury or biomechanical alterations, metabolic reprogramming and immunomodulation, but different synovial joint tissues dominate the disease in different patients with osteoarthritis. Image credit: Mobasheri et al / Nature Reviews Rheumatology, doi: 10.1038/nrrheum.2017.50.

Researchers Identify Nine New Genes for Osteoarthritis

Mar 19, 2018 by News Staff

A multinational group of scientists led by the Wellcome Sanger Institute has discovered nine novel genes for osteoarthritis, a degenerative joint disease...

Solenodon Genome Sequenced

Mar 19, 2018 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international team of scientists has sequenced and assembled the genome of a venomous shrew-like insectivore called the Hispaniolan solenodon. The Hispaniolan...

Hunter-gatherers. Image credit: T.P.S. Dave.

Humans Interbred with Denisovans Twice in History, Researchers Discover

Mar 16, 2018 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the University of Washington and Princeton University has found that the genomes of two groups of modern humans with Denisovan...

Malik et al conducted a multiancestry genome-wide-association meta-analysis in 521,612 individuals (67,162 cases and 454,450 controls) and discovered 22 new stroke risk loci, bringing the total to 32. Image credit: Gerd Altmann.

Scientists Identify 22 New Genetic Risk Factors for Stroke

Mar 14, 2018 by News Staff

A large-scale international collaboration called MEGASTROKE has identified 22 new genetic risk factors for stroke, thus tripling the number of gene regions...

A herd of African elephants in South Africa. Image credit: Coco Parisienne.

Scientists Reconstruct Evolutionary History of Elephants

Feb 28, 2018 by News Staff

Elephants were once among the most widespread megafaunal families. However, only three species exist today: two species of the genus Loxodonta, the forest...

Tasmanian tigers (Thylacinus cynocephalus) in captivity. Image credit: University of Melbourne / Museums Victoria.

Tasmanian Tiger Genome Sequenced

Feb 26, 2018 by News Staff

Scientists have produced the first high-quality genomic sequence for the Tasmanian tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus), also known as the thylacine. Tasmanian...