Genetics
Category archives for Genetics
The Perfect Bird Family Tree…
Posted by Greg Laden on June 26, 2008 … is certainly still in the future. But we have seen a step in that direction in a new paper, coming out this week in Science. This research applies intensive and extensive genomic analysis to the avian phylogenetic tree. The results are interesting. This paper is summarized in a number of locations, most notably here…
Genome Size and Flight in Bats
Posted by Greg Laden on June 22, 2008 Continuing with our discussion of the Evolution 2008 conference, I was hoping to meet T. Ryan Gregory yesterday. He is listed on the Evolution 2008 program as an author of a talk on genome size. Goodnews/badnews: Gregory did not show, but the talk, given by his coauthor working in his lab, was excellent, so we…
Biology Will Never Be the Same Again: Scott Lanyon
Posted by Greg Laden on June 20, 2008 The Evolution 2008 conference started out today with a special program for K-12 teachers (mainly life science teachers) organized by the Minnesota Citizens for Science Education (MNCSE). The opening speaker was Scott Lanyon, director of the Bell Museum of Natural History. (The Bell hosted this event.) Scott’s objective was to outline several areas of evolutionary…
“US government gene guru to resign”
Posted by Greg Laden on May 28, 2008 Photograph of Francis S. Collins Just passing along the details from Associated Press: WASHINGTON (AP) — The government is losing its gene guru: Dr. Francis Collins, who helped lead the breakthrough unraveling of the human genetic code — and found common ground between the belief in God and science — is resigning. Collins, arguably the…
Resurrection of DNA Function from an Extinct Genome
Posted by Greg Laden on May 20, 2008 Could even this bird be reanimated, gene by gene? When you are extinct you’re extinct. Everything about you is dead and gone. There are no more of you, every individual in your species is kaput, non existent, used up, as the Pima Indians would say, you are hokum (like a car with a flat tire).…
Evolutionary Genetics of Canine Population Structure
Posted by Greg Laden on May 6, 2008 A recent study of dog genetics, published in PLoS, seeks to improve the quality of genetic research by better understanding the underlying patterns of genetic variation at the level of specific dog breeds.
Amazing DNA
Posted by Greg Laden on April 5, 2008 Great enunciation in this one:
Gene Genie #24
Posted by Greg Laden on March 28, 2008 Welcome to Gene Genie #24: with a heavy emphasis on Personal Genetics The previous Gene Genie was hosted at DNAdirect Talk and it is still fresh, so go have a look if you have not already. The next Gene Genie will be hosted at My Biotech Life. By the way, the Gene Genie logo was…
Geographic Patterns of Genome Admixture in Latin American Mestizos
Posted by Greg Laden on March 24, 2008 Significant cultural and physical differences … the stuff of race and ethnicity … are prominent when people move across continents or between them. Eventually, the ponderous events of history, which involve occasional foldings in the continuum of human variation, causing apparent patchiness, are offset by the frequent events of human activities, resulting in genetic and…
Homosexual Geneticists Isolate Cause of Christianity
Posted by Greg Laden on March 23, 2008 Genetics of Behavior: Fire Ants
Posted by Greg Laden on March 22, 2008 A common presumption is that behavior is part of phenotype, and since phenotype arises from genotype (plus/minus Reaction Norm), that there can be a study of “behavioral genetics.” This is certainly an overstatement (or oversimplification) for organisms with extensive and/or complex neural systems, such as humans and mice. Neural systems probably evolved (not initially, but…
The story of PCR
Posted by Greg Laden on March 14, 2008 You’ve all seen the PCR song: I also recommend a look at this post on the Punk Professor’s Blog
Sexing Drosophila melanogaster
Posted by Greg Laden on March 10, 2008 AP Biology Gene Therapy Expose
Posted by Greg Laden on March 9, 2008 (Includes footage of a stuffed octopus)
Why the Hobbits of Flores Were Probably Not Broken People
Posted by Greg Laden on March 6, 2008 There is a new paper out suggesting that the Flores hominids, known as Hobbits, were “human endemic cretins.” From the abstract of this paper: … We hypothesize that these individuals are myxoedematous endemic (ME) cretins, part of an inland population of (mostly unaffected) Homo sapiens. ME cretins are born without a functioning thyroid; their congenital…
Evolution of the Flu Virus
Posted by Greg Laden on March 1, 2008 The flu is caused by the influenza virus, of which there are several types. H1N1 is known as the “Spanish Flu,” H2N2 as the “Asian Flu” and so on. These funny letters and numbers refer to specific genotypes. The H1N1 is the version of the flu that caused the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and…
The Origin of the Chicken
Posted by Greg Laden on February 29, 2008 Where and when were chickens domesticated? From whence the humble chicken? Gallus gallus is a domesticated chicken-like bird (thus, the name “chicken”) that originates in southeast Asia. Ever since Darwin we’ve known that the chicken originated in southeast Asia, although the exact details of which one or more of several possible jungle fowls is the…
SARS comes from bats
Posted by Greg Laden on February 28, 2008 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) is caused by a coronavirus that is now believed to have originated in bats. In 2004, thousands of palm civets (a cat like carnivore) were killed off in China because it was believed that they were the main reservoir of this disease. Ooops.
Lemur Family Tree Mapped
Posted by Greg Laden on February 28, 2008 A DNA phylogeny based on over 200 species of lemurs and related species is now available.
What did the immediate ancestor of chimps and humans look like?
Posted by Greg Laden on February 19, 2008 Comparing living chimpanzees to living humans, in reference to the species that gave rise to these two closely related species, is one way to frame questions about the evolution of each species.
Artificial and Natural Selection in Cosmos
Posted by Greg Laden on February 15, 2008 A classic:
What is a disease?
Posted by Greg Laden on February 12, 2008 “Disease” is a big word. I’d like to address this question by focusing on the difference, or lack of difference, between a poison, a disease, and a yummy thing to eat. It turns out that they may all be the same. Yet different.
Mammals and the KT Event
Posted by Greg Laden on February 10, 2008 A very important and truly wonderful paper in Nature described a tour-de-force analysis of the Mammalian Evolutionary Record, and draws the following two important conclusions: The diversification of the major groups of mammals occurred millions of years prior to the KT boundary event; and The further diversification of these groups into the modern pattern of…
Good news: The Second Coming has Arrived!!
Posted by Greg Laden on February 9, 2008 Bad News: It’s a Big Lizard!! According to a report noted in Evolving in Kansas, Komodo Dragons have been hatched in Sedgwick County without fertilization by a male. There are two of them, both males. (Isn’t that interesting?) … I think they should name them Jesus and Brian.
The Three Necessary and Sufficient Conditions of Natural Selection
Posted by Greg Laden on February 5, 2008 Natural Selection is the key creative force in evolution. Natural selection, together with specific histories of populations (species) and adaptations, is responsible for the design of organisms. Most people have some idea of what Natural Selection is. However, it is easy to make conceptual errors when thinking about this important force of nature. One way…
The Modes of Natural Selection
Posted by Greg Laden on February 3, 2008 There many ways of dividing up and categorizing Natural Selection. For example, there are the Natural Selection, Sexual Selection and Artificial Selection, and then there is the Modes of Selection (Stabilizing, Directional, and Disruptive) trichotomy. We sense that these are good because they are “threes” and “three” is a magic number. Here, I’m focusing on…
, which is now available for the 
