Genes & Cells

Genetics casts doubt on sea bass certification
The Chilean sea bass you just picked up from the grocery may not have come from a sustainable fishery, despite what the label says. Genetic tests on 36 Chilean sea bass samples purchased at U.S. grocery stores showed that three weren’t even the correct species, Peter Marko of Clemson University in South Carolina and colleagues report in the Aug. 23 Current Biology. The remaining samples were Chilean sea bass, but 15 percent of the fish had genetic signatures that indicate they came from outside the only sustainable fishing area known for the species. Mislabeling fish may actually increase overfishing and undermine the purpose of certification, the researchers say. —Tina Hesman Saey

Jumping genome
The tammar wallaby, a type of small kangaroo, has hopped onto the list of animals with completely transcribed genetic instruction books. An international team led by researchers at the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Kangaroo Genomics unveiled the genetic blueprints of a female wallaby from Kangaroo Island, Australia, August 19 in Genome Biology. Analysis of the genetic blueprints reveals that a gene called HOXD13 may be responsible for the kangaroo’s characteristic hop. The gene, which is involved in hind limb development, is turned on and off at different times in tammars than it is in mice and humans, leading to longer back legs. —Tina Hesman Saey

Harold and Kumar go to Cold Spring Harbor
Millions of bits of marijuana genetic information have gone up in a cloud — the Amazon EC2 cloud computing service, that is. Researchers at Medicinal Genomics, a company headquartered in Marblehead, Mass., announced August 18 that they had compiled complete genetic instructions for two species of cannabis, Cannabis sativa and Cannabis indica. The project is still half-baked, however: The pieces of genetic information have not yet been fully assembled into the 10 chromosome pairs that are predicted for the species, nor has the data been analyzed to find genes and other important elements. The genetic data may lead to improvements in marijuana’s medicinal properties, says company founder Kevin McKernan. —Tina Hesman Saey