Genetic Archaeology News

Scientists 'rebuild' giant moa using ancient DNA

Friday, July 03, 2009 00:00 MST

Scientists have performed the first DNA-based reconstruction of the giant extinct moa bird, using prehistoric feathers recovered from caves and rock shelters in New Zealand.

Genetic analysis reveals secrets of scorpion venom

Thursday, July 02, 2009 00:00 MST

Transcriptomic tests have uncovered the protein composition of venom from the Scorpiops jendeki scorpion. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Genomics have carried out the first ever venom analysis in this arachnid, and discovered nine novel poison molecules never before seen in any scorpion species.

Study of flower color shows evolution in action

Wednesday, July 01, 2009 00:00 MST

Scientists at UC Santa Barbara have zeroed in on the genes responsible for changing flower color, an area of research that began with Gregor Mendel's studies of the garden pea in the 1850's.

Natural-born divers and the molecular traces of evolution

Tuesday, June 30, 2009 00:00 MST

When the ancestors of present marine mammals returned to the oceans, their physiology had to adapt radically. Dr. Michael Berenbrink at Liverpool University has been studying how myoglobin, the molecule responsible for delivering oxygen to the muscles during locomotion, has been modified in seals and whales to help them cope with the needs of a life at sea. The results will be presented at the Society for Experimental Biology meeting on Monday, June 29.

Algorithm charts evolution of genetic networks during fruit fly life cycle

Thursday, June 25, 2009 00:00 MST

A new algorithm developed by Carnegie Mellon University computer scientists has revealed for the first time how genetic networks in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, evolve during the insect's life cycle. The new algorithm, called Tesla, incorporates machine learning techniques that enable researchers to figure out how the rewiring of those networks takes place as the insect develops.

DNA template could explain evolutionary shifts

Wednesday, June 24, 2009 00:00 MST

Rearrangements of all sizes in genomes, genes and exons can result from a glitch in DNA copying that occurs when the process stalls at a critical point and then shifts to a different genetic template, duplicating and even triplicating genes or just shuffling or deleting part of the code within them, said researchers from Baylor College of Medicine in a recent report in the journal Nature Genetics.

Domestication of Capsicum annuum chile pepper provides insights into crop origin and evolution

Tuesday, June 23, 2009 00:00 MST

Chile peppers have long played an important role in the diets of Mesoamerican people. Capsicum annuum is one of five domesticated species of chiles and is one of the primary components of these diets. However, little is known regarding the original location of domestication of C. annuum and the genetic diversity in wild relatives. Dr. Kim et al. found a large amount of diversity in individuals from the Yucatan Peninsula, making this a center of diversity for chiles.

Method for computing evolutionary trees could revolutionize evolutionary biology

Saturday, June 20, 2009 00:00 MST

Detailed, accurate evolutionary trees that reveal the relatedness of living things can now be determined much faster and for thousands of species with a computing method developed by computer scientists and a biologist at the University of Texas at Austin.

Gene evolution process discovered

Tuesday, June 16, 2009 00:00 MST

One of the mechanisms governing how our physical features and behavioral traits have evolved over centuries has been discovered by researchers at the University of Leeds, UK.

1 moose, 2 moose: Scientist seeks correction in number of species

Saturday, June 13, 2009 00:00 MST

It is a misinterpretation of the application of the bedrock of scientific naming with regard to the number of moose species that Kris Hundertmark, a University of Alaska Fairbanks wildlife geneticist at the Institute of Arctic Biology, seeks to correct.

Mobile DNA elements in woolly mammoth genome give new clues to mammalian evolution

Wednesday, June 10, 2009 00:00 MST

The woolly mammoth died out several thousand years ago, but the genetic material they left behind is yielding new clues about the evolution of mammals. In a study published online in Genome Research, scientists have analyzed the mammoth genome looking for mobile DNA elements, revealing new insights into how some of these elements arose in mammals and shaped the genome of an animal headed for extinction.

'Pelvis has left the building'

Monday, June 08, 2009 00:00 MST

Different genes cause loss of body parts in similar fish

Geography and history shape genetic differences in humans

Sunday, June 07, 2009 00:00 MST

New research indicates that natural selection may shape the human genome much more slowly than previously thought. Other factors -- the movements of humans within and among continents, the expansions and contractions of populations, and the vagaries of genetic chance -- have heavily influenced the distribution of genetic variations in populations around the world. The study is published June 5 in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics.

Study links 'warrior gene' to gang membership, weapon use

Saturday, June 06, 2009 00:00 MST

Boys who carry a particular variation of the gene Monoamine oxidase A (MAOA), sometimes called the "warrior gene," are more likely not only to join gangs but also to be among the most violent members and to use weapons, according to a new study from the Florida State University that is the first to confirm an MAOA link specifically to gangs and guns.

At long last, how plants make eggs

Friday, June 05, 2009 00:00 MST

Scientists at the University of California-Davis, have discovered that a plant hormone called auxin is responsible for development of the egg cell in a plant's embryo sac. In unraveling this fundamental issue in plant biology, the work provides the first definitive report of a plant hormone acting as a morphogen and offers tantalizing new insights into the evolutionary pathway that flowering plants took 135 million years ago when they split off from gymnosperms.