Genetics News & Research
A team of 70 scientists today reports having sequenced the genome of the 'sacred' lotus plant, which is believed to have a powerful genetic system that repairs defects, and may hold secrets about aging successfully.
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 | Scientists at the Institute of Food Research have been mining the genome of C. botulinum to uncover new information about the toxin genes that produce the potent toxin behind botulism. ...> Full Article |
In a groundbreaking move that provides new insight into avian evolution, biology and conservation, researchers at Texas A&M University have successfully sequenced the complete genome of a Scarlet macaw for the first time.
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In a report in the journal Current Biology, researchers from Baylor College of Medicine use the model of the social amoeba -- Dictyostelium discoideum -- to identify the genetic controls on how the amoeba differentiate the different bacteria and respond to achieve their goal of destruction.
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Doctors should not have the right or responsibility to force-feed their patients with genomic information about their future health risks, according to bioethicists writing on May 9 in Trends in Biotechnology, a Cell Press publication. They write in response to controversial recommendations from the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics on the reporting of incidental findings in clinical genome sequencing.
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 | The sacred lotus is a symbol of spiritual purity and longevity. Its seeds can survive up to 1,300 years, its petals and leaves repel grime and water, and its flowers generate heat to attract pollinators. Now researchers report that they have sequenced the lotus genome. Of all the plants sequenced so far -- and there are dozens -- sacred lotus bears the closest resemblance to the ancestor of all eudicots, a broad category of flowering plants that includes apple, cabbage, cactus, coffee and tobacco. ...> Full Article |
From Ireland to the Balkans, Europeans are all closely related according to a new study of the DNA of people from across the continent. The study examined relatedness among Europeans up to about 3,000 years ago, comparing genetic sequences from over 2,000 individuals. The results are published 7 May in the open access journal PLOS Biology.
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Genome assembly, the molecular equivalent of trying to put together a multi-million piece jigsaw puzzle without knowing what the picture on the cover of the box is, remains challenging due to the very large number of very small pieces, which must be assembled using current approaches. As reported May 5 online in the journal Nature Methods, a collaboration involving DOE JGI researchers has resulted in an improved and fully automated workflow for genome assembly.
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A new analysis by the Synthetic Biology Project finds the number of private and public entities conducting research in synthetic biology worldwide grew significantly between 2009 and 2013.
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Biologists at UC San Diego have identified eight genes never before suspected to play a role in wound healing that are called into action near the areas where wounds occur.
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 | Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute, Columbia University and the University of Florida, Gainesville, have developed a novel strategy for isolating and characterizing a substantial number of RNAs transported from the cell-body of neuron (nerve cell) to the synapse, the small gap separating neurons that enables cell to cell communication. ...> Full Article |
CSIRO and Mirus Bio LLC are pleased to announce a new license arrangement that will enable Mirus Bio to utilize the unique characteristics of CSIRO's Reversible Addition-Fragmentation chain Transfer polymerization technology to expand upon its high-end polymer development capabilities for the biotech industry.
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 | University of North Carolina researchers have discovered that disrupting a gene that acts as a regulatory switch to turn on other genes can keep blood vessels from forming and developing properly. ...> Full Article |
 | Researchers from Dartmouth's Institute for Quantitative Biomedical Sciences and the Center for Genomic Medicine have helped to discover three unique genetic variations that influence body size and obesity in men and women of African ancestry. This study, a meta-analysis that examined 3.2 million genetic variants in over 30,000 people with African heritage for links to body-mass index or BMI, was the largest ever done on this population to date. ...> Full Article |
Like musicians in an orchestra who have the same musical score but start and finish playing at different intervals, cells with the same genes start and finish transcribing them at different points in the genome. For the first time, researchers at EMBL have described the striking diversity of messenger RNAs (mRNAs) that such start and end variation produces, even from the simple genome of yeast cells. Their findings are published today in Nature.
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