Genetics

  1. Genetics

    Early Polynesians didn’t go to Americas, chicken DNA hints

    Contamination of ancient chicken DNA may explain previous report linking Polynesians to South America.

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  2. Genetics

    Giant moa thrived before people reached New Zealand

    Humans probably caused the extinction of giant wingless birds called moa in New Zealand, DNA evidence suggests.

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  3. Life

    Protein linked to motor nerve cells being fast or slow

    The protein, Delta-like homolog 1, is made in 30 percent of motor neurons and helps to determine at which speed the cells work, research shows.

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  4. Genetics

    Neanderthal Man

    The hottest thing in human evolution studies right now is DNA extracted from hominid fossils. Svante Pääbo, the dean of ancient-gene research, explains in Neandertal Man how it all began when he bought a piece of calf liver at a supermarket in 1981.

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  5. Animals

    Methylation turns a wannabe bumblebee into a queen

    Epigenetic changes to bumblebee DNA turns a worker into a reproductive pseudo-queen, suggesting that genomic imprinting could be responsible for the bumblebee social system.

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  6. Genetics

    What your earwax says about your ancestry

    Both armpit and ear wax secretions are smellier in Caucasians than in Asians, thanks to a tiny genetic change that differs across ethnic groups.

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  7. Genetics

    Genes involved in dog OCD identified

    Scientists say they have identified several of the genes that trigger obsessive-compulsive disorder in Doberman pinschers, bullterriers, sheepdogs and German shepherds.

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  8. Humans

    Clovis baby’s genome unveils Native American ancestry

    DNA from skeleton shows all tribes come from a single population.

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  9. Genetics

    Origin of Tibetans’ high-altitude adaptations found

    Mixing genes of two ancestral populations gave modern Tibetans their ability to withstand high altitude.

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  10. Genetics

    When flowers died out in Arctic, so did mammoths

    Genetic analysis finds vegetation change in the Arctic around same time as megafauna extinction.

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  11. Genetics

    Chemical changes to genes make twins’ pain differ

    Chemical changes to genes may make identical twins experience pain differently.

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  12. Humans

    DNA suggests humans moved back into Africa

    About 3,000 years ago, human populations from western Eurasia migrated back into eastern Africa, specifically Ethiopia.

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