671 views | 1 decade ago
Bats act as reservoirs for the Ebola virus and exhibit no symptoms of the disease. Even though the Ebola virus is harmless to bats, it is lethal to humans. The problem occurs when viruses jump between...
525 views | 1 decade ago
Autism and Schizophrenia are complex psychiatric diseases, created by a combination of genetic and environmental factors. A large number of small de novo mutations that affect only one or two nucleotides,...
347 views | 1 decade ago
Synopsis: Sequencing accelerates breeding programs for food-producing animals by helping to identify and select desirable characteristics, such as disease resistance. By breeding animals that are naturally...
446 views | 1 decade ago
Synopsis: Tibetans live and thrive at extreme altitudes. An important event in this human adaptation was the incorporation of DNA from Denisovans. Denisovans are ancient ancestors that diverged from...
396 views | 1 decade ago
Every individual responds differently to infection by the same type of virus. This is partly due to the tricks viruses use to dodge the host s immune system. Viruses use transposable elements from the...
316 views | 1 decade ago
One of the risks of global warming and the melting of the permafrost is that ancient microbes can be released into the environment. In a recent paper, the authors demonstrated that live, ancient viruses...
406 views | 1 decade ago
Sequencing ancient mitochondrial DNA provided insights to the origin of dogs and their domestication. Not only has sequencing allowed us to trace back evolution of species, but also to trace back transmissible...
376 views | 1 decade ago
Grapefruits and Mohawks: The Fountain of Youth? Synopsis: The process of aging has been of interest for millennia. Myths of the fountain of youth still have their allure of longevity. Scientists today...