Genetics

  1. 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.

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  2. 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.

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  3. 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.

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  4. 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.

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  5. 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.

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  6. 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.

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  7. 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.

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  8. 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.

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  9. 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.

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  10. 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.

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  11. Genetics

    How gene therapy overcame high-profile failures

    A dark period for gene therapy didn’t derail scientists determined to help patients.

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  12. 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.

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