The genome of hepatitis D doesn’t resemble any known virus, making its origin a mystery. But by mining virus sequences from genetic datasets, a new study may have found the answer.
More clinical trials in African countries can help ensure that any vaccines or treatments developed cater to the continent’s genetic diversity.
CELLOU BINANI/AFP via Getty Images
More countries on the African continent must urgently get involved in clinical trials so that the data collected will accurately represent the continent at a genetic level.
Africa is known to be where humans originated. This makes it the most genetically diverse region in the world. Diversity in other populations represents a subset of the diversity within Africa.
Male lions are responsible for the movement of genes between prides. New research confirmed that the genes are traveling long distances – even though no one has been spotting the lions on the journey.
Edwards’s pheasants (Lophura edwardsi) are a wild relative of domesticated chickens.
Wildlife Reserves Singapore
There are over 100 species of wild coffee, but only a few supply the world's morning caffeine kick. Sadly, climate change and disease could be about to change that.
Got a license for those seeds?
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Sharing seeds was common practice among farmers throughout history until the rise of agribusiness. Now seeds are trademarked and regulated, but there's a new place to get them for free: the library.
Families have secrets - and sometimes we don’t know our complete genetic histories.
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Newly recognised genetic populations carry their evolutionary history with them, and the history of their habits. This is why detecting new species is so important.
In Soviet Russia, the science tests you.
Wikimedia
Ian Godwin, The University of Queensland and Yuri Trusov, The University of Queensland
When politics meddles with science, it can lead to tragedy, as was the case with Stalin's favourite agricultural biologist Trofim Lysenko and his rival Nikolai Vavilov.
Computer dating for animals? Finding the right matchup - using DNA rather than personality questionnaires - could help select the best partnerships for captive breeding programs.
Wild coffee grows here – and nowhere else.
Indrias Getachew
Protecting this ecosystem helps local people and secures coffee's long-term genetic future.
Great white sharks in South Africa have extremely low genetic diversity compared with shark populations elsewhere in the world.
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