Genetic Archaeology News Archives Page 22

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

Role of dinosaur demise in mammal rise challenged (3/31/2007)

Scientists have long thought that the mass extinction of the dinosaurs around 65 millions years ago opened the door for modern mammal species to proliferate. But an international team of scientists has created a mammoth record of evolutionary timing, showing that the origins and diversification of existing mammal species - including human ancestors - don’t synch with the demise of the dinosaurs. ...> Full Article

Maternal Beef Diet Could Impact Sperm Counts (3/30/2007)

A mother’s high beef consumption while pregnant was associated with lower sperm counts in her son, according to a study led by researchers at the University of Rochester. ...> Full Article

Could USA Presidential DNA Trail Reveal Middle-Eastern Origins? (3/30/2007)

University of Leicester study into ancestry of Thomas Jefferson shows rare class of DNA ...> Full Article

Man's Earliest Direct Ancestors Looked More Apelike Than Previously Believed (3/29/2007)

First Humans Retained Surprisingly Apelike Features, NYU Study Reveals ...> Full Article

Simulated populations used to probe gene mapping (3/28/2007)

Forward-time simulation proves practical for studying complex diseases ...> Full Article

Microfossils unravel Africa's climate history (3/27/2007)

Scientists from the NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research obtained for the first time a detailed temperature record for tropical central Africa over the past 25,000 years. ...> Full Article

No sex for 40 million years? No problem. (3/26/2007)

New research shows that tiny asexual creatures have managed to evolve into different species ...> Full Article

First Comprehensive Genetic Analysis of Invasive Marine Animal and its Parasites Sheds Light on Spread of Disease (3/26/2007)

A paper that authors are calling a "home run" study on the spread of disease is published in this week's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). ...> Full Article

Study Determines How People Recognize Family Members as Close Genetic Relatives (3/26/2007)

Fundamental theories in evolutionary biology have long proposed that biological kinship is the foundation of the family unit. It not only creates the sense of altruism that exists among genetically related family members, but also establishes boundaries regarding sexual relations within the nuclear family. Questions have persisted, however, regarding the means by which humans recognize family members – particularly siblings – as close genetic relatives. ...> Full Article

New link shown between genetics, climate change and population growth in sheep (3/26/2007)

Study investigates how genetically-controlled physical traits affect population dynamics ...> Full Article