A new study identifies 18 genome regions that influence tooth size and shape, of which 17 have not been linked to our chompers before – and shows how genetic variation affects tooth dimensions across ethnicities.
One of the variants, in the gene HS3ST3A1, could have been inherited from Neanderthals, according to the international team of scientists. It was only found in study participants of European origin, with thinner incisors.
A team of 91 researchers—including famed geneticist Eske Willerslev at the Lundbeck Foundation GeoGenetics Center, University of Copenhagen—has discovered a Bronze Age genetic divergence connected to eastern and western Mediterranean Indo-European language speakers.
Findings indicate that Spanish, French and Italian populations received steppe ancestry from Bell Beaker groups, while Greek and Armenian groups acquired ancestry directly from Yamnaya populations. Their results are consistent with the Italo-Celtic and Graeco-Armenian linguistic models.
A gene that causes skull malformation when mutated has just been linked to schizophrenia, a condition known for causing unsettling hallucinations and disordered thinking.
“This would be extraordinary because it all started with a bone,‘ says St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital neurobiologist Stanislav Zakharenko.
Zakharenko supervised the team that revealed the connection. If it holds true it shows how brain disorders can sometimes arise from a disruption in the communications from other tissues rather than out of the brain tissue itself.
Led by Zakharenko’s colleague Tae-Yeon Eom, the researchers found that in mouse models deletion of one copy of the Tbx1 gene disrupts skull bone formation during development, leading to a malformed pocket in the brain’s casing. Without an appropriately shaped skull, lobes of the cerebellum that usually grow within are 70 percent smaller than normal.
Scientists from Vilnius University’s (VU) Life Sciences Center (LSC) have discovered a unique way for cells to silence specific genes without cutting DNA. This research, led by Prof. Patrick Pausch and published in the journal Nature Communications, reveals a new way to silence genes that is akin to pressing a “pause” button on certain genetic instructions within cells.
The research team, including doctoral student Rimvydė Čepaitė, Dr. Aistė Skorupskaitė, undergraduate Gintarė Žvejyte and Prof. Pausch at Vilnius University, working alongside an international team, uncovered how cells use a specific system to locate and silence unwanted DNA. This system, which could eventually enable safer gene modifications, shows promise for repairing faulty genes that cause diseases.
Each year, roughly the same numbers of boys and girls are born. But in individual families, some couples have four or more daughters and no sons, and some have all male children and no female children, points out University of Michigan evolutionary geneticist Jianzhi Zhang. This has led some scientists to question whether this skewed sex ratio is a result of the genes of the parents.
Now, Zhang and U-M doctoral student Siliang Song have detected a human genetic variant that influences the sex ratio of children. Additionally, they found that many hidden genetic variants of sex ratio may exist in human populations. Their results are published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.
People with one of the type A blood groups are more likely to have a stroke before the age of 60 compared with people with other blood types, research shows.
Blood types describe the rich variety of chemicals displayed on the surface of our red blood cells.
Among the most familiar are those named A and B, which can be present together as AB, individually as A or B, or not present at all, as O.
The largest study of its kind has identified individual genes, gene sets, and gene variants that increase risk of developing epilepsy – vital discoveries to improve diagnosis and treatment for one of the most common neurological conditions .
A collaboration between 40 research groups around the world has released its collected data in an interactive web portal for further analysis. Understanding more about the genes linked to the condition can now allow more targeted investigation of the different mechanisms at play.
Scraps of DNA discarded by our neurons’ power units are being absorbed into our nuclear genome far more frequently than assumed, potentially putting our brains at greater risk of developing life-threatening conditions.
An investigation by a team of researchers led by Columbia University in the US has found individuals with higher numbers of nuclear mitochondrial insertions – or NUMTs (pronounced new-mites) – in their brain cells are more likely to die earlier than those with fewer DNA transfers.
The sex of human and other mammal babies is decided by a male-determining gene on the Y chromosome. But the human Y chromosome is degenerating and may disappear in a few million years, leading to our extinction unless we evolve a new sex gene.
The good news is two branches of rodents have already lost their Y chromosome and have lived to tell the tale.
A 2022 paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science shows how the spiny rat has evolved a new male-determining gene.
From shifting skink rainbows to dazzling hummingbird metallics, many creatures display brilliant hues created by nano-structures weaving wavelengths of light.
Researchers led by Utrecht University bioinformatician Aldert Zomer have now pinpointed genes that allow bacteria to make use of this vivid phenomenon too.
Where colors emitted by pigments are the leftover parts of the visible light spectrum that aren’t absorbed, structural colors arise from the way light interferes as it is reflected.