Genetics

A new study of ancient DNA appears to rule out the likelihood that inhabitants of Easter Island intermixed with Native South Americans prior to the arrival of Europeans on the island in 1722. Fehren-Schmitz et al found no Native American admixture in pre- and post-European-contact Rapanui. Image credit: Bjørn Christian …

Europeans and European/African Americans with a variant of the DNA Methyltransferase 3 Beta (DNMT3B) gene have an increased risk of developing nicotine dependence, smoking heavily, and developing lung cancer, a new study published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry shows. According to Hancock et al, the new genetic variant highlights the …

An international team of researchers from Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia has sequenced the genome of durian (Durio zibethinus), a Southeast Asian tropical plant known for its hefty, spine-covered fruit and sulfury and onion-like odor. Durian (Durio zibethinus). Image credit: Amon Heijne / CC BY-SA 3.0. Durian is an edible …

Two separate teams of researchers have used advanced DNA sequencing methods to analyze the 52,000-year-old remains of a Neanderthal woman from Vindija Cave in Croatia, and the 34,000-year-old remains of four anatomically modern humans from the Upper Paleolithic archaeological site of Sunghir. The findings are published in two papers in …

A new study led by University of Adelaide researcher Jeremy Austin traces the history of Tasmanian tiger (thylacine) populations over the last 30,000 years. A pair of thylacines, a male and female, c. 1905. Image credit: Smithsonian Institutional Archives / E. J. Keller, National Zoological Park. The thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus) …

An international team of scientists from the United Kingdom, Japan, and Germany has produced the first high-quality genomic sequence for the white Guinea yam (Dioscorea rotundata), a staple tuber crop that contributes enormously to the subsistence and socio-cultural lives of millions of people, principally in West and Central Africa. Woman …

An international team of researchers led by the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute has analyzed genome-wide data of 381 individuals from 85 language groups in Papua New Guinea and found that different groups within the country are genetically highly different from each other. The research is published in the journal Science. …

Genetic variants linked to Alzheimer’s disease and heavy smoking are less frequent in people with longer lifespans, suggesting that natural selection is weeding out these unfavorable variants in some populations, according to an analysis of the genomes of 210,000 people in the U.S. and UK. Mostafavi et al found a …

Researchers have shown that financial stress may cause more migraines in individuals with variants in the circadian rhythm gene CLOCK, suggesting that the genetics of circadian rhythms and presence of chronic stresses interact to influence the likelihood of migraine problems. Migraines take a toll on around 1 billion people. This …

The discovery of CRISPR has made for an interesting few years in the realm of genetic research. It meant we can make permanent edits to a genome with the aid of the CIRSPR/Cas9 system, but there has been a great deal of concern over how to use this powerful technology. Researchers …