Genetic

As more police forces crack decades-old cold cases with the help of genetic genealogy, Montreal police have yet to have a major breakthrough on a case of their own.The lack of progress — at least publicly — is raising concerns about the Montreal police department's priorities at a time when both the Sûreté du Québec and neighbouring Longueuil police have used new forensic methods to solve cases long thought to be unsolvable.Last spring, Longueuil police solved the 1975 murder of Sharron Prior and in 2022, Quebec…

The large size variation among cetacean species, including dolphins, whales, and porpoises, is largely explained by the activity of specific gene regions, according to a recent study by scientists from Brazil's University of Campinas Institute of Biology (IB-UNICAMP).Blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus), for example, can grow up to a giant 30 meters (98 feet) long while the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) usually doesn't get longer than 3.5 meters. Not only does the new research help explain these massive size…

Researchers have created a new method to link genetic variants to coronary artery disease, discovering a connection to a rare vascular disease, which may lead to new treatments. Credit: SciTechDaily.comNew gene mapping technique reveals how genetic alterations in cells lining blood vessels contribute to coronary artery disease, with implications for diagnostic and treatment strategies.Researchers from the Brigham, the Broad Institute, and Stanford Medicine studied how “deleting” individual genes associated with coronary…

A study has identified genes that influence obesity risk differently across sexes and age groups, offering new insights into the biological pathways of obesity. These discoveries underscore the importance of considering sex and age in obesity research and could lead to new treatments.Researchers have discovered genes that impact obesity risk differently in men and women and across various ages, revealing potential new pathways for understanding and treating obesity.From influencing how our body stores fat to how our brain…

Caves and rock shelters dot the mountains in the northwestern highlands of Thailand. Over 40 in Mae Hong Son province contain wooden coffins on stilts, dating back 1,000 – 2,300 years. Credit: © Selina CarlhoffAncient DNA helps researchers elucidate the structure of a prehistoric community from Southeast Asia.A mortuary practice known as Log Coffin culture characterizes the Iron Age of highland Pang Mapha in northwestern Thailand. Between 2,300 and 1,000 years ago, individuals were buried in large wooden coffins on…

A recent study has drawn controversy by implying genetic links between bisexuality in men and a propensity for risk-taking. This research on human sexual behavior, published in January in Science Advances, is an example of a genome-wide association study (GWAS). Such studies compare entire genome sequences from many people in a search for areas of overlap between genes and certain traits. The authors of the new study report that bisexual behavior in men is genetically distinct from exclusively same-sex behavior and…

A team from RIKEN CSRS has traced the evolutionary history of plant immune receptors, revealing their common ancestry with growth proteins and the potential for creating pathogen-resistant crops through genetic engineering. Credit: SciTechDaily.comRIKEN researchers have mapped the evolution of plant immunity, uncovering a pathway to engineer crops with enhanced disease resistance.Plants are continuously evolving new immune receptors to ever-changing pathogens. Researchers at the RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource…

Excavating the LRJ layers 8 meters deep at Ranis was a logistical challenge and required elaborate scaffolding to support the trench. Credit: Marcel Weiss, License: CC-BY-ND 4.0 A genetic analysis of bone fragments unearthed at an archaeological site in central Germany shows conclusively that modern humans—Homo sapiens—had already reached Northern Europe 45,000 years ago, overlapping with Neanderthals for several thousand years…

Credit: CC0 Public Domain As Canadians share more and more genetic data with service providers such as insurance companies or databases like Ancestry.com, the potential for discrimination based on this data is growing. Known as genetic discrimination (GD), this practice is broadly defined as the differential treatment of an individual compared to the rest of the population based on actual or presumed genetic information.…

Research involving over 114,000 women revealed that a variant in the SYCE2 gene, affecting chromosome recombination, increases miscarriage risk by 22%, underscoring the complex genetic factors involved in pregnancy loss.A significant study identifies a genetic variant in the SYCE2 gene that heightens the risk of miscarriage by 22%, shedding light on the genetic causes of pregnancy loss.Scientists at deCODE genetics, a subsidiary of Amgen and their collaborators from Iceland, Denmark, and the USA published a study today in…