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…
Category: Genetics
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…
Famine and disease may have driven ancient Europeans’ lactose tolerance
Ancient Europeans may have evolved an ability to digest milk thanks to periodic famines and disease outbreaks. Europeans avidly tapped into milk drinking starting around 9,000 years ago, when dairying…
Ancient DNA links an East Asian Homo sapiens woman to early Americans
A previously undetected Homo sapiens population inhabited what’s now southwestern China around 14,000 years ago and contributed to the ancestry of ancient Americans. This far-ranging Asian group’s evolutionary identity has…
Who decides whether to use gene drives against malaria-carrying mosquitoes?
In a large laboratory cage, a male mosquito carries a genetic weapon that could launch the destruction of his species. That loss could also mean the end of the parasite…
Dog breed is a surprisingly poor predictor of individual behavior
Turns out we may be unfairly stereotyping dogs. Modern breeds are shaped around aesthetics: Chihuahuas’ batlike ears, poodles’ curly fur, dachshunds’ hot dog shape. But breeds are frequently associated with…
We finally have a fully complete human genome
Researchers have finally deciphered a complete human genetic instruction book from cover to cover. The completion of the human genome has been announced a couple of times in the past,…
How gene therapy overcame high-profile failures
Gene therapy pioneer Richard Jude Samulski remembers when he avoided the words “gene therapy.” In the mid-2000s, he told people he worked on “biological nanoparticles,” even attempting to trademark the…
An extinct rat shows CRISPR’s limits for resurrecting species
Before the early 1900s, if it walked like a Christmas Island rat and talked like a Christmas Island rat, it probably was a Christmas Island rat. But if one of…
