Genetics
- Microbes
How fungi make potent toxins that can contaminate food
Genetically engineering Aspergillus fungi to delete certain proteins stops the production of mycotoxins that can be dangerous to human health.
- Genetics
Black Death immunity came at a cost to modern-day health
A genetic variant that boosts Crohn’s disease risk may have helped people survive the 14th century bubonic plague known as the Black Death.
- Genetics
Ancient DNA unveils Siberian Neandertals’ small-scale social lives
Females often moved into their mate’s communities, which totaled about 20 individuals, researchers say.
- Genetics
Can’t comb your kid’s hair? This gene may be to blame
Scientists linked variants of one hair shaft gene to most of the uncombable hair syndrome cases they tested.
- Animals
DNA reveals donkeys were domesticated 7,000 years ago in East Africa
When and where donkeys were domesticated has been a long-standing mystery. DNA now reveals they were tamed much earlier than horses.
- Anthropology
Famine and disease may have driven ancient Europeans’ lactose tolerance
Dealing with food shortages and infections over thousands of years, not widespread milk consumption, may be how an ability to digest dairy evolved.
- Humans
Ancient DNA links an East Asian Homo sapiens woman to early Americans
Genetic clues point to a Late Stone Age trek from southwestern China to North America.
- Genetics
Who decides whether to use gene drives against malaria-carrying mosquitoes?
As CRISPR-based gene drives to eliminate malaria-carrying mosquitoes pass new tests, the African public will weigh in on whether to unleash them.
- Animals
Dog breed is a surprisingly poor predictor of individual behavior
Despite the popular conviction that dog breeds are associated with specific traits, breed accounts for only 9 percent of behavioral differences.
- Genetics
We finally have a fully complete human genome
Finding the missing 8 percent of the human genome gives researchers a more powerful tool to better understand human health, disease and evolution.
- Genetics
How gene therapy overcame high-profile failures
A dark period for gene therapy didn’t derail scientists determined to help patients.
- Genetics
An extinct rat shows CRISPR’s limits for resurrecting species
Scientists recovered most of the Christmas Island rat’s genome. But the missing genes signal a problem for using gene editing to de-extinct species.
