Genetic Archaeology Research & News
Scientists at the University of Liverpool have shed new light on how diving mammals, such as the sperm whale, have evolved to survive for long periods underwater without breathing.
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After decades of laboring under other theories that never seemed to add up, a team of McMaster University biologists has concluded that menopause is actually an unintended outcome of natural selection generated by men's historical preference for younger mates.
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 | From skeletons and biopsies, an international team of scientists was successful in reconstructing a dozen medieval and modern genomes of the leprosy-causing bacteria Mycobacterium leprae. ...> Full Article |
Carbon dioxide is released when the calcium carbonate "armor" of the photosynthetic alga Emiliania huxleyi forms, but Ehux can trap as much as 20 percent of organic carbon derived from CO2 in some marine ecosystems. Its versatility in either contributing to primary production or adding to CO2 emissions makes Ehux a critical player in the marine carbon cycle. The Ehux genome sequence was compared with other algal sequences in the June 12, 2013 edition of Nature.
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 | When did modern humans settle in Asia and what route did they take from mankind's African homeland? A University of Huddersfield professor has helped to provide answers to both questions. But he has also had to settle a controversy. ...> Full Article |
Evolutionary biologists have often argued that once complex traits are lost, they are seldom regained. But a new study, led by biologists at McGill University and published in the journal PLOS Biology, suggests that this may not be the case for self-pollen recognition.
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French scientists have discovered that supposedly rare mutations in the mitochondria, the "power plants" of human cells responsible for creating energy, account for more than seven percent of patients with a mitochondrial disease manifesting itself as a respiratory deficiency. Their data emphasize the need for comprehensive analysis of all the mitochondrial DNA in patients suspected as having a mitochondrial disease.
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Scientists at USC have unlocked the mystery of why new cases of the genetic disease Noonan syndrome are so common; a mutation that causes the disease disproportionately increases a normal father's production of sperm carrying the disease trait.
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 | Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center scientists have, for the first time, mapped a young gene's short, dramatic evolutionary journey to becoming essential, or indispensable. In a study published online June 6 in Science, the researchers detail one gene's rapid switch to a new and essential function in the fruit fly, challenging the long-held belief that only ancient genes are important. ...> Full Article |
 | In animals that reproduce by internal fertilization, as humans do, you'd think a penis would be an organ you couldn't really do without, evolutionarily speaking. Surprisingly, though, most birds do exactly that, and now researchers reporting in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on June 6 have figured out where, developmentally speaking, birds' penises have gone. ...> Full Article |
 | Biologists have uncovered new insights into how the male sexual behavior of the peculiar southern bottletail squid is primed to produce the greatest number of offspring. ...> Full Article |
Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital, in a multi-institutional collaboration with Boston Children's Hospital, the Broad Institute, and the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, have identified that a genetic mutation leads to a type of premature puberty, known as central precocious puberty.
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Early Earth was not very hospitable when it came to jump starting life. In fact, new research shows that life on Earth may have come from out of this world.
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 | Many animals -- from locusts to fish -- live in groups and swarm, but scientists aren't sure why or how this behavior evolved. Now a multidisciplinary team of Michigan State University scientists has used a model system to show for the first time that predator confusion can make prey evolve swarming behavior. ...> Full Article |
A multi-national team of researchers has identified genetic markers that predict educational attainment by pooling data from more than 125,000 individuals in the United States, Australia, and 13 western European countries.
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Peer pressure tests grade schoolers -- not just adolescents
New mathematical model links space-time theories
Seahorse's armor gives engineers insight into robotics designs
Do palm trees hold the key to immortality?
New strategy for fingerprint visualization developed at Hebrew University
Genome decoding of the medieval leprosy pathogen
New archaeogenetic research refutes earlier findings
How young genes gain a toehold on becoming indispensable
How birds lost their penises
Sexual selection in the sea
Discovering 1 reason why swarming evolved offers tantalizing clues on how intelligence developed