Genetic Archaeology News - August 2009 Archives

Milk drinking started around 7,500 years ago in central Europe (8/31/2009)

The ability to digest the milk sugar lactose first evolved in dairy farming communities in central Europe, not in more northern groups as was previously thought, finds a new study led by UCL scientists published in the journal PLoS Computational Biology. The genetic change that enabled early Europeans to drink milk without getting sick has been mapped to dairying farmers who lived 7,500 years ago between the central Balkans and central Europe. ...> Full Article

We are all mutants (8/30/2009)

Researchers have calculated a general rate of one mutation in each 15 to 30 million DNA letters in humans. Using next-generation sequencing, researchers sequenced part of the Y chromosome from two distant male-line relatives. Despite 13 generations of separation -- with a common male ancestor 200 years ago -- they found only four letters that differed. Mutation is the ultimate source of human genetic variation and has implications for both evolutionary and disease genetics. ...> Full Article

Unique study isolates DNA from Linnaeus' botanical collections (8/28/2009)

Researchers at Uppsala University has succeeded in extracting long DNA fragments from dried, pressed plant material collected in the 1700s by Linnaeus' apprentice Adam Afzelius. It is hoped that the study, led by Associate Professor Katarina Andreasen, will shed light on whether plants growing today at Linnaeus' Hammarby estate outside Uppsala reflect the species cultivated by Linnaeus himself. ...> Full Article

Scientists find evidence of iridescence in 40 million-year-old feather fossil (8/27/2009)

A team of paleontologists and ornithologists led by Yale University has discovered evidence of vivid iridescent colors in feather fossils more than 40 million-years-old. The finding signifies the first evidence of a preserved color-producing nanostructure in a fossilized feather. ...> Full Article

Major insights into evolution of life reported by molecular biologist (8/25/2009)

Humans might not be walking on the face of the Earth were it not for the ancient fusing of two prokaryotes -- tiny life forms that do not have a cellular nucleus. Important new insights about prokaryotes and the evolution of life are published by UCLA molecular biologist James A. Lake, Aug. 20 in the journal Nature. ...> Full Article

Clues to gigantism provided by family in Borneo Mountains (8/24/2009)

An indigenous family living in a mountainous area of Malaysian Borneo helped Van Andel Research Institute researchers to discover information about genetic mutations associated with acromegaly, a form of gigantism that often results in enlarged hands, feet and facial features. ...> Full Article

Key feature of immune system survived in humans, other primates for 60 million years (8/23/2009)

A new study has concluded that one key part of the immune system, the ability of vitamin D to regulate anti-bactericidal proteins, is so important that is has been conserved through almost 60 million years of evolution and is shared only by primates, including humans -- but no other known animal species. ...> Full Article

Evolution of the appendix: A biological 'remnant' no more (8/21/2009)

Writing in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology, Duke scientists and collaborators from the University of Arizona and Arizona State University conclude that Charles Darwin was wrong: The appendix is a whole lot more than an evolutionary remnant. Not only does it appear in nature much more frequently than previously acknowledged, but it has been around much longer than anyone had suspected. ...> Full Article

Team ties genetic variations to brain size (8/20/2009)

Findings could lead to better understanding of autism and other neurological disorders ...> Full Article

The first gene-encoded amphibian toxin isolated (8/19/2009)

Researchers in China have discovered the first protein-based toxin in an amphibian -- a 60-amino-acid neurotoxin found in the skin of a Chinese tree frog. This finding may help shed more light into both the evolution of amphibians and the evolution of poison. ...> Full Article

NASA researchers make first discovery of life's building block in comet (8/19/2009)

NASA scientists have discovered glycine, a fundamental building block of life, in samples of comet Wild 2 returned by NASA's Stardust spacecraft. ...> Full Article

The peopling of the Americas (8/18/2009)

At one time or another most of us wonder where we came from, where our parents or grandparents and their parents came from. Did our ancestors come from Europe or Asia? As curious as we are about our ancestors, for practical purposes, we need to think about the ancestry of our genes, according to Cecil Lewis, assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Oklahoma. Lewis says our genetic ancestry influences the genetic traits that predispose us to risk or resistance to disease. ...> Full Article

Why are autumn leaves red in America and yellow in Europe? (8/17/2009)

A new theory, concluded by researchers from the University of Haifa, Israel, and the University of Kuopio in Finland, reaches 35 million years back in time to solve the puzzle ...> Full Article

Genome duplication responsible for more plant species than previously thought (8/16/2009)

Extra genomes appear, on average, to offer no benefit or disadvantage to plants, but still play a key role in the origin of new species, say scientists from Indiana University Bloomington and three other institutions in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. ...> Full Article

Biologists ID molecular basis of high-altitude adaptation in mice (8/15/2009)

Team discovers specific mutations involved in evolutionary adaptation to different environments ...> Full Article

Fungus found in humans shown to be nimble in mating game (8/14/2009)

Brown University researchers have determined that Candida albicans, a human fungal pathogen, pursues both same-sex and the more conventional opposite-sex mating. The findings are published in the August 2009 edition of the journal Nature. ...> Full Article

Researchers find first-ever 'wanderlust gene' in tiny bony fish (8/6/2009)

A gene previously associated with physical traits is also dictating behavior in a tiny fish widely regarded as a living model of Darwin's natural selection theory, according to a University of British Columbia study. ...> Full Article

African village dogs are genetically much more diverse than modern breeds (8/5/2009)

African village dogs are not a mixture of modern breeds but have directly descended from an ancestral pool of indigenous dogs, according to a Cornell-led genetic analysis of hundreds of semi-feral African village dogs. ...> Full Article