Genetic Archaeology News - April 2007 Archives

Studying Early China To Learn Why Civilizations Rise And Fall (4/30/2007)

In the Yellow River valley of northern China, Zhichun Jing digs through the remains of long-ago cities to find insights for modern survival. Over the past 10 years, Jing has been excavating the cities of the late Shang Dynasty. Flourishing between 1,200 and 1,050 BC, the Shang was one of the first literate civilizations in China and East Asia. Its last capital city was Yinxu, where the present-day city of Anyang now stands. ...> Full Article

Scientists Find Missing Link to Understand How Plants Make Vitamin C (4/29/2007)

Vitamin C is possibly the most important small molecule whose biosynthetic pathway remained a mystery. That is until now. ...> Full Article

Parasite Supports Host By Becoming Fertility Aid (4/28/2007)

Bacteria that commonly infect insects have evolved from parasites to being a fertility aid. The bacteria could eventually be targeted as an option for pest control in order to kill common human disease carriers such as mosquitoes. ...> Full Article

What Is Dollo's Law, And How Are Sea Snails Breaking It? (4/27/2007)

Lizards gave rise to legless snakes. Cave fishes don't have eyeballs. In evolution, complicated structures often get lost. Dollo's Law states that complicated structures can't be re-evolved because the genes that code for them were lost or have mutated. A group of sea snails breaks Dollo's law, Rachel Collin, Staff Scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and colleagues from two Chilean universities announce in the April, 2007, Biological Bulletin. ...> Full Article

Researchers Zero In On Genes That Turn A Plant's Ability To Self-pollinate On And Off (4/26/2007)

Some plants need a partner to reproduce. Pollen from one plant pollinates the stigma of another, and a seed is formed. But other plants can self-pollinate, a handy survival mechanism for a lonely plant. ...> Full Article

Prehistoric Mystery Organism Verified As Giant Fungus (4/26/2007)

Scientists at the University of Chicago and the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., have produced new evidence to finally resolve the mysterious identity of what they regard as one of the weirdest organisms that ever lived. ...> Full Article

Two-Protein Team Would Be Lost Without Each Other (4/25/2007)

Researchers are developing a more detailed picture of the complex interplay between genes and proteins in the rapidly growing root tips of plants ...> Full Article

Neanderthal Genome Video Update (4/25/2007)

Nature has put a wonderful short set of videos on their web site about the Neanderthal Genome Project. The project, which hopes to decode and publish the Neanderthal Genome, within a couple years, is steadily making progress, and is releasing new information in regular intervals. ...> Full Article

Happy Dna Day! (4/25/2007)

It’s been 5 years since congress set about creating National DNA day. Though it probably won’t garner the media attention that Earth Day does, it is no less significant. The discovery of DNA, and the process of unlocking its secrets, is probably the biggest scientific discovery of all time. ...> Full Article

Researchers Discover Key to Memory Storage in Brain (4/25/2007)

For years, scientists have known little about how the brain assigns cells to participate in encoding and storing memories. Now a team of researchers from UCLA and the University of Toronto has discovered that a protein called CREB controls the odds of a neuron playing a role in memory formation. ...> Full Article

The Emerging Fate Of The Neanderthals (4/25/2007)

For nearly a century, anthropologists have been debating the relationship of Neandertals to modern humans. Central to the debate is whether Neandertals contributed directly or indirectly to the ancestry of the early modern humans that succeeded them. ...> Full Article

Climate Change Could Make Species Prone To Extinction (4/24/2007)

Climate change could trigger "boom and bust" population cycles that make animal species more vulnerable to extinction, according to Christopher C. Wilmers, an assistant professor of environmental studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. ...> Full Article

New Study Reveals Inner Workings Of A Molecular Clamp Critical To Dna Replication (4/24/2007)

From bacteria to humans, every organism must replicate its DNA. This basic process, which occurs millions of times a day in an average mammal, is driven by three core protein complexes that act as tiny machines, zipping along an unwound strand of DNA to assemble a duplicate copy. New research from Rockefeller University now shows that one of these complexes, a “clamp loader,” requires several previously unidentified steps to get the process started. ...> Full Article

Earth's First Rainforest Unearthed (4/24/2007)

A spectacular fossilised forest has transformed our understanding of the ecology of the Earth’s first rainforests. ...> Full Article

Junk Dna Now Looks Like Powerful Regulator (4/24/2007)

Large swaths of garbled human DNA once dismissed as junk appear to contain some valuable sections, according to a new study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and the University of California-Santa Cruz. The scientists propose that this redeemed DNA plays a role in controlling when genes turn on and off. ...> Full Article

Adolescents Needed For Asperger Study (4/23/2007)

Adolescents with Asperger syndrome are sought for a University of Queensland psychology project. ...> Full Article

Scientists Discover New Genus Of Frogmouth Bird In Solomon Islands (4/23/2007)

Your bird field guide may be out of date now that University of Florida scientists discovered a new genus of frogmouth bird on a South Pacific island. ...> Full Article

One Small Carnivore Survived The Last Ice Age In Ireland (4/23/2007)

You may well ask the question, where did the animals and plants of modern day Ireland and Britain come from? Published in the journal, Proceedings of the Royal Society, scientists at Queen’s University Belfast have uncovered evidence that stoats survived in Ireland at the coldest point of the last Ice Age, 23,500 years ago. ...> Full Article

Agent Orange Causes Genetic Disturbance In New Zealand Vietnam War Veterans (4/23/2007)

A study published in the journal "Cytogenetic and Genome Research" shows that exposure to Agent Orange, and other defoliants, has led to genetic disturbance in New Zealand Vietnam War veterans which continues to persist decades after their service. ...> Full Article

Scientists Identify Genes Activated During Learning and Memory (4/21/2007)

Researchers have long recognized that for learning and memory to take place, certain genes must be activated to alter neuron activity inside the brain. Disruptions in normal gene expression within these neurons can lead to alarming consequences, such as seizures and epilepsy. But identifying and cataloging all the genes involved in learning is a daunting task. In the March 13 issue of BMC Neuroscience, Carnegie Mellon University scientists show how an innovative computational approach can provide a rapid way to identify the likely members of this long sought-after set of genes. ...> Full Article

Placental Mammals Newer Than Previously Thought (4/21/2007)

Despite great progress over the past decade, the evolutionary history of placental mammals remains controversial. While a consensus is emerging on the topology of the evolutionary tree, although with occasional disagreement, divergence times remain uncertain. The age of earlier nodes and in particular the root, remain especially uncertain in the absence of definitive placental fossils deeper into the Cretaceous. ...> Full Article

Fossilised Tree Mystery Solved (4/20/2007)

An international research team including a Cardiff expert has found evidence of the Earth’s earliest forest trees, dating back 385 million years. ...> Full Article

Family Study Hunts Schizophrenia-Risk Genes In Latinos (4/20/2007)

Three regions of chromosomes 1, 5 and 18 very likely contain genes that contribute to schizophrenia in persons of Mexican and Central American ancestry, investigators of an international genetics study conducted in the U.S., Mexico, Guatemala and Costa Rica reported this month. ...> Full Article

Scientists Unlock Secret Of What Makes Plants Flower (4/19/2007)

A protein acting as a long-distance signal from leaf to shoot-tip tells plants when to flower, says new research published in Science Express on Thursday 19 April 2007. ...> Full Article

Human-Chimp Gene Study Upsets Long-Held View (4/19/2007)

Put a human and a chimpanzee side by side, and it seems obvious which lineage has changed the most since the two diverged from a common ancestor millions of years ago. Such apparent physical differences, along with human speech, language and brainpower, have led many people to believe that natural selection has acted in a positive manner on more genes in humans than in chimps. ...> Full Article

When Fish First Started Biting (4/18/2007)

Before fish began to invade land, about 365 million years ago, they had some big problems to solve. They needed to come up with new ways to move, breathe, and eat. ...> Full Article

Research Team Identifies Additional Genetic Risk Factors For Crohn's Disease (4/17/2007)

Variations could improve understanding of disease process, lead to new therapies. ...> Full Article

Scientists Explain Why We Vary In Attractiveness (4/17/2007)

Newcastle University researchers believe they have solved a mystery that has puzzled evolutionary scientists for years ... if 'good' genes spread through the population, why are individuals so different? ...> Full Article

Primate Research Center Plays Key Role in Rhesus Genome Project (4/16/2007)

When the Human Genome Project was completed in 2003, it was hailed as a groundbreaking health achievement. Now, scientists in Oregon have played a key role in the latest significant breakthrough that will greatly impact genetic studies aimed at treating and curing disease. Researchers at the Oregon National Primate Research Center at Oregon Health & Science University took part in the analysis of the newly completed rhesus macaque monkey genome. The results of this monumental project, which involved 35 institutions and 170 researchers, are published in the current edition of the journal Science. ...> Full Article

Genetic Archaeology Finds Clues to Pregnancy in Male Pipefish and Seahorses (4/16/2007)

Genetic archaeology is providing a new clue to one of the greatest gender mysteries in the fish world: how did male pregnancy evolve in a family of fish? ...> Full Article

Secret Life Of The Sex-Changing Fish Revealed (4/16/2007)

Research has revealed a remarkable tale of fish changing sex and fish harems in waters off the New South Wales Central Coast. ...> Full Article

Treasure Trove of Fossils Found in Illinois Cave (4/15/2007)

Remnants from a cave embedded in a limestone quarry southwest of Chicago have yielded a fossil trove that may influence the known history of north central Illinois some 310 million years ago. ...> Full Article

Man's Best Friend Lends Insight Into Human Evolution (4/15/2007)

Flexibly drawing inferences about the intentions of other individuals in order to cooperate in complex tasks is a basic part of everyday life that we humans take for granted. But, according to evolutionary psychologist Brian Hare at the Max Planck Institute in Germany, this ability is present in other species as well. ...> Full Article

Good Behavior, Religiousness May Be Genetic (4/15/2007)

Study of Twins Shows that Altruistic Behavior not Strictly Environmental ...> Full Article

New Study Zeroes In On The Genetic Roots Of Alzheimer's (4/14/2007)

Scientists have known for more than a decade that individuals with a certain gene are at higher risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease. Now a new study helps explain why this is so. ...> Full Article

Researchers Find Fragile X And Down Syndromes Linked To Faulty Brain Communication (4/14/2007)

The two most prevalent forms of genetic mental retardation, Fragile X and Down syndromes, may share a common cause, according to researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine. The problem, a crippled communication network in the brain, may also be associated with autism. ...> Full Article

First Study Reporting Chimps Using Caves (4/14/2007)

Chimpanzees in Senegal apparently have much in common with our earliest human ancestors. ...> Full Article

New Primate Species Found In 42 Million-Year-Old Laredo Fossils (4/13/2007)

Something old is now something new, thanks to Lamar University researcher Jim Westgate and colleagues. The scientists' research has led to the discovery of a new genus and species of primate, one long vanished from the earth but preserved in the fossil record. ...> Full Article

Misclassified for Centuries, Medicinal Leeches Found to Be Three Distinct Species (4/13/2007)

Discovery could have impact on future medical treatments ...> Full Article

Researchers Recover T Rex Genetic Material (4/13/2007)

What happens when a 68 million-year-old Tyrannosaurus Rex meets 21st century medical science? ...> Full Article

Anthropologist Finds Earliest Evidence Of Maize Farming In Mexico (4/13/2007)

A Florida State University anthropologist has new evidence that ancient farmers in Mexico were cultivating an early form of maize, the forerunner of modern corn, about 7,300 years ago—1,200 years earlier than scholars previously thought. ...> Full Article

Discovery Of Gene Mutation That Causes Infertility In Male Mice Gives Promise Of Similar Finding In Infertile Men (4/12/2007)

Discovery of gene mutation that causes infertility in male mice gives promise of similar finding in infertile men ...> Full Article

Disputing Coevolution In Herbivorous Insects (4/12/2007)

Coleoptera (beetles) are one of the most successful groups of organisms on Earth. Their success in evolutionary terms is recognised by their extreme adaptive diversity (occupying almost every possible ecological niche) and their longevity (fossils from the Palaeozoic, 280 million years ago). But most of all, their success is indisputable in their sheer species numbers: with over 350,000 named species and many more to be described, they constitute about one fourth of all species on the Planet! ...> Full Article

Researchers use 'nanopore channels' to precisely detect DNA (4/11/2007)

Researchers at Purdue's Birck Nanotechnology Center have shown how "nanopore channels" can be used to rapidly and precisely detect specific sequences of DNA as a potential tool for genomic applications in medicine, environmental monitoring and homeland security. ...> Full Article

To recognize their friends, mice use their amygdalas (4/11/2007)

Even those who can’t remember names can usually recall faces. New research from Rockefeller University suggests that a simple brain chemical, a neuropeptide called oxytocin, is a reason. ...> Full Article

Scientists find genes involved in the battle between Hessian flies and wheat (4/10/2007)

Wheat has ways to battle the tiny, red wormlike insects that nibble on the plant's leaves and can destroy crops worldwide, but the Hessian fly larvae that survive eventually evolve methods to overcome plant defenses. ...> Full Article

Genetic Switch Can Control Memory (4/9/2007)

McGill University researchers have discovered that a mutant gene improves the long-term memory of laboratory mice, a discovery they hope will one day lead to a better quality of life for Alzheimer’s patients and others suffering from memory impairment. ...> Full Article

Females Do Best if They Wait a While (4/9/2007)

Doubt is cast on one of the biggest assumptions in behavioural ecology. ...> Full Article

Why Are There So Many More Species Of Insects? Because Insects Have Been Here Longer (4/8/2007)

J. B. S. Haldane once famously quipped that "God is inordinately fond of beetles." Results of a study by Mark A. McPeek of Dartmouth College and Jonathan M. Brown of Grinnell College suggest that this fondness was expressed not by making so many, but rather by allowing them to persist for so long. ...> Full Article

New Science of Metagenomics Will Transform Modern Microbiology (4/8/2007)

The emerging field of metagenomics, where the DNA of entire communities of microbes is studied simultaneously, presents the greatest opportunity -- perhaps since the invention of the microscope -- to revolutionize understanding of the microbial world, says a new report from the National Research Council. The report calls for a new Global Metagenomics Initiative to drive advances in the field in the same way that the Human Genome Project advanced the mapping of our genetic code. ...> Full Article

Medical scanners virtually unwrap Science Center's baby mummy (4/7/2007)

Researchers at the University and elsewhere recently helped the St. Louis Science Center probe the mysteries of a baby mummy. The mummy, part of the Science Center's collection of artifacts for two decades, went on permanent public display on March 15 in conjunction with the arrival of an IMAX film on mummies. ...> Full Article

Researchers Identify Gene That Plays Key Role in Body Size (4/6/2007)

An international team of scientists, including researchers from Cornell University, has found a mutation in a single gene that plays a key role in determining body-size differences within and among dog breeds and probably is important in determining the size of humans as well. ...> Full Article

Carrying Heavy Objects Caused Humans to Evolve Upright Posture (4/6/2007)

The next time you are struggling to carry your bags home from the supermarket just remember that this could, in fact, be the reason you are able to walk upright on two legs at all! How we have evolved to walk on two legs remains a fundamental but, as yet, unresolved question for scientists. A popular explanation is that it is our ability to carry objects, particularly children, which forced early hominins onto two legs. ...> Full Article

Genetics May Control a Childs Need for Social Bonding (4/5/2007)

Beyond the lineage of primates, according to scientific gospel, social behavior is dictated primarily by competition for resources such as food, territory and reproduction. ...> Full Article

Genomics Throws Species Definition In Question (4/5/2007)

Classifying micro-organisms is hard work, and the rules are changing all the time. Genomics may offer a new method of determining how and where creatures are classified. Though this research is directed toward microbes, it may one day apply to all taxonomy. ...> Full Article

China's Earliest Modern Human (4/4/2007)

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis and the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) in Beijing have been studying a 40,000-year-old early modern human skeleton found in China and have determined that the "out of Africa" dispersal of modern humans may not have been as simple as once thought. ...> Full Article

40,000-year-old skull shows both modern human and Neanderthal traits (4/3/2007)

Humans continued to evolve significantly long after they were established in Europe, and interbred with Neanderthals as they settled across the continent. ...> Full Article

Gene induces eyes in odd spots (4/3/2007)

A gene thought to play a relatively minor role in eye development is powerful enough on its own to initiate the formation of eyes in strange spots on a fruit fly's body, Indiana University Bloomington scientists have learned. ...> Full Article

'Selfish DNA' driving insecticide resistance (4/2/2007)

Transposable elements, sometimes called ‘selfish DNA’, can be responsible for insecticide resistance, according to scientists from the Universities of Exeter, Bath and Melbourne. Transposable elements (TEs) can ‘jump around’ the genome and cause mutations by inserting into the coding regions of genes and disrupting or altering, and in this case increasing, gene function. ...> Full Article

Biologists call for better choice of model organisms in 'evo-devo' (4/2/2007)

Research in evolutionary developmental biology, known as ‘evo-devo’, is being held back because the dominant model organisms used by scientists are unable to illustrate key questions about evolution, argue biologists in the latest issue of Nature Reviews Genetics. ...> Full Article

Genetic Chimeras May Be Loved More By Dad (4/2/2007)

Marmosets, small monkeys that live in the forests of Central and South America, are usually born as twins. Their early development is quite interesting. Through the exchange of embryonic stem cells in the womb, they become genetic “chimeras,” which means they carry genes of their brother or sister in their own tissues. ...> Full Article

Scientists Identify How Development of Different Species Uses Same Genes Differently (4/2/2007)

Biologists at New York University have identified how different species use common genes to control their early development and alter how these genes are used to accommodate their own features. ...> Full Article

Anthropologist Studies Evolution's Disgusting Side (4/1/2007)

Behind every wave of disgust that comes your way may be a biological imperative much greater than the urge to lose your lunch, according to a growing body of research by a UCLA anthropologist. ...> Full Article