Herbal dietary supplements (also known as nutritional supplements, but correctly called botanicals), once dismissed as hippie fare, are now widely advertised for their supposed potential to cure a variety of…
Category: Genetics
50 years ago, scientists sequenced a gene for the first time
Molecular biology’s flower child — Science News, January 6, 1973 During the past several years, some artificial genes have been synthesized…. But no one had unraveled a real gene that dictates…
Squid edit their RNA to keep cellular supply lines moving in the cold
WASHINGTON — Squid don’t have thermostats to control ocean temperatures. Instead, the cephalopods tweak RNA to adjust to frigid waters, a study suggests. Usually, genetic instructions encoded in DNA are…
A natural gene drive could steer invasive rodents on islands to extinction
In the battle against the invasive house mouse on islands, scientists are using the rodent’s own genes against it. With the right tweaks, introducing a few hundred genetically altered mice…
DNA is providing new clues to why COVID-19 hits people differently
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the mercurial nature of the coronavirus has been on display. Some people get mild, cold-like illnesses or even have no symptoms when infected, while…
How fungi make potent toxins that can contaminate food
Food contaminated with fungi can be an inconvenience at best and life-threatening at worst. But new research shows that removing just one protein can leave some fungal toxins high and…
Ancient DNA unveils Siberian Neandertals’ small-scale social lives
DNA from a group of Neandertals who lived together and a couple of others who lived not far away has yielded the best genetic peek to date into the social…
Black Death immunity came at a cost to modern-day health
A genetic variant that appears to have boosted medieval Europeans’ ability to survive the Black Death centuries ago may contribute — albeit in a small way — to an inflammatory…
Can’t comb your kid’s hair? This gene may be to blame
The flurry of frizzy-hair e-mails began in 2016. Human geneticist Regina Betz of University Hospital Bonn in Germany and her team had just linked three genes to a rare disorder…
DNA reveals donkeys were domesticated 7,000 years ago in East Africa
From pulling Mesopotamian war chariots to grinding grain in the Middle Ages, donkeys have carried civilization on their backs for centuries. DNA has now revealed just how ancient humans’ relationship…
