Variation in Biological News

Warmer environment means shorter lives for cold-blooded animals

... is the dominant factor controlling geographic variation of lifespan within species. "We were intrigued ... we wanted to see whether the geographical variation in lifespan that we see in all sorts of species ... of temperature, there was still considerable variation in lifespan within species, indicating that ...

The value of variation: Ecologists consider the causes and consequences

... causes and consequences of such ecological variation is the goal of a group of scientists meeting at ... Ecology Consequences of Intraspecific Niche variation is the topic of a NIMBioS Working Group comprised ... Austin. "Very little is known about how niche variation affects the ecological dynamics of a species or a ...

Genetic marker linked to problem behaviors in adults with developmental disabilities

... A common variation of the gene involved in regulating serotonin and ... developing control group. The same MAOA variation has also been linked to autism in children, ... suggest that problem behaviors linked to this variation may explain increased autism severity in ...

DNA template could explain evolutionary shifts

... to make people think very hard about copy number variation with respect to genome evolution, gene evolution ... method by which the genome generates copy number variation among genes, but it also demonstrates that copy number variation can occur at a different time in the life of a ...

Immune genes adapt to parasites

... polymorphisms" (SNPs). Making sure that genetic variation (in the form of multiple SNPs) is maintained ... evolutionary selection, meaning that the genetic variation was neither due to chance nor to the migration of populations over time. And some of that variation correlated with the diversity of parasites that ...

100 reasons to change the way we think about genetics

... biologists are finding that non-genetic variation acquired during the life of an organism can ... Their article outlines inherited epigenetic variation in bacteria, protists, fungi, plants, and ... cases Jablonka and Raz cite, the source of the variation in subsequent generations was not DNA. Rather, ...

Researchers gain genome-wide insights into patterns of the world's human population structures

... A single nucleotide polymorphism is a genetic variation in which the DNA code differs by only one ... concluded that 85 to 95 percent of human genetic variation can be attributed to differences among ... the two or three top- ranking axes of genetic variation emerging from the statistical analysis. For ...

Predators ignore peculiar prey

... of a flock of Blue Jays. He said, "Maintenance of variation is a classic paradox in evolution because both selection and drift tend to remove variation from populations. If one form has an advantage, ... concludes, "Thus, the maintenance of color variation in terrestrial salamanders might be explained by ...

Nutrigenomics -- developing personalized diets for disease prevention -- part 2 just published in OMICS

... analyzed over the past century. Genomic variation among individuals and populations is a new factor ... Present state of the knowledge on genetic variation in taste, and how such variation might influence food intake behaviors is ...

Why didn't Darwin discover Mendel's laws?

... own work. Darwin's commitment to quantitative variation as the raw material of evolution meant he could ... University of Cologne, Germany. "Quantitative variation was at the heart of Darwin's evolution, and quantitative variation is the last place where clean Mendelian ...

New book expands field data available on orangutans

... Scientists are aware of significant variation in the behavior, morphology and life histories of ... comparative approach in Orangutans: Geographic variation in Behavioral Ecology and Conservation provides ... only preserve numbers, but also take geographic variation into account." The book points out not only ...

Darwin's legacy in 21st century biology

... of Genetics, University of Wisconsin will discuss variation under domestication Dr. Ottoline Leyser, ... Genetic Medicine University of Chicago. Genetic variation influencing susceptibility to complex ... and the department of genetics, SOM. Human variation and disease. Dr. Junhyong Kim, Professor of ...

Microscopic morphology adds to the scorpion family tree

... lungKamenz and Prendini found a wealth of new variation that gives insight into the evolutionary ... structures contain phylogenetically important variation at multiple branches in the scorpion tree. One ... of the lamellar surface show additional variation that is informative higher up the branches of the ...

Study a step toward disease-resistant crops, sustainability

... traits. "We are basically 'mining' natural variation for genes of interest," Weil said. The ... it with various lines - effectively using natural variation to their advantage - to increase kernel size. ... is going to work," Weil said. ""The alleles, the variation in expression and the data to map them are ...

Scientists propose the creation of a new type of seed bank

... cultivation have relatively low levels of genetic variation because we have been selecting them only for the ... by contrast, contain a high degree of genetic variation in almost any trait that we might examine." ... use practices, are reducing the amount of genetic variation in the wild. If they are, the only way it can be ...

Study reveals specific gene in adolescent men with delinquent peers

... adolescent males who possess a certain type of variation in a specific gene are more likely to flock to ... for antisocial peer groups and a particular variation (called the 10-repeat allele) of the dopamine ... adolescent males with the very same gene variation who lived in low-risk families (those with high ...

Collaboration between researchers yields more comprehensive portrait of brain cancer

... publishes a comprehensive analysis of genomic variation in the brain cancer glioblastoma. These results ... measuring changes in other types of genomic variation and in epigenomic variation. Epigenomic variation refers to molecules that are added to our genome ...

Largest study of its kind implicates gene abnormalities in bipolar disorder

... found an association between the disorder and variation in two genes that make components of channels ... it's not yet known if or how the suspect genetic variation might affect the balance machinery, the results ... examining about 1.8 million sites of genetic variation in 10,596 people including 4,387 with bipolar ...

Genes may make some people more prone to anxiety

... By showing that people who carry a common variation of a gene that regulates the neurotransmitter ... says Montag, can explain only a small portion of variation in anxious behavior otherwise, in theory, up to ... could be anxious. "This single gene variation is potentially only one of many factors ...

Study finds connections between genetics, brain activity and preference

... found that depressed men with a particular variation near the gene coding for CREB report greater ... Another study of theirs associated the same variation with a threefold greater risk of suicidal ... inherited. "We were surprised to see that variation in the CREB1 gene would account for more than 20 ...

Why do people vote? Genetic variation in political participation

... new study finds that genes significantly affect variation in voter turnout, shedding new light on the ... three tests of the claim that part of the variation in political participation can be attributed to ... make up a large and significant portion of the variation in political participation, even after taking ...

Estimation of isolation times in the Drosophila simulans complex

... initial isolation, from patterns of DNA sequence variation at several genes," says Dr. Richard Kliman, ... genes that we study show an unusual pattern of variation among species: those in parts of the genome ... the ancestral mainland population, the levels of variation at the two classes of genes can be reconciled." ...

Cold Spring Harbor Protocols features methods for analyzing genomes and plant cells

... widely between individuals. This copy number variation (or CNV), contributes to our species' genetic ... detecting copy number variation. "Copy Number variation Detection Via High-Density SNP Genotyping" ... a more comprehensive understanding of genome variation and will aid in studies seeking the causes of ...

Genetic variation linked to sugary food

... finds that individuals with a specific genetic variation consistently consume more sugary foods. The study offers the first evidence of the role that a variation in the GLUT2 gene a gene that controls sugar ... the research team examined the effect of a common variation in a gene that controls the entry of sugar ...

Genetic variant mimics effect of heart failure medications

... St. Louis. The researchers found that the genetic variation acts just like beta-blockers, a class of drugs ... American heart failure patients with the genetic variation had a natural protection against death and the ... program. In this case, it seems that this genetic variation is a good thing, mimicking drugs that are ...

Mental stress reduces blood flow to the heart in patients with gene variation

... of Florida researchers have identified a gene variation in heart disease patients who appear especially ... Affairs Medical Center. Those with the gene variation are three times more likely to experience ... about two-thirds of them harbored a particular variation of the adrenergic beta-1 receptor genotype that ...

Blue-eyed humans have a single, common ancestor

... condition known as albinism. Limited genetic variation variation in the colour of the eyes from brown to green can ... blue-eyed individuals only have a small degree of variation in the amount of melanin in their eyes. From this ...

Gene variation may elevate risk of liver tumor in patients with cirrhosis

... A particular gene variation appears to significantly increase the risk that ... If these results are confirmed, this EGF variation could be used to determine which cirrhotic ... patients. The researchers focused on a known variation in the EGF gene the presence of the nucleotide ...

Copy number variation may stem from replication misstep

... but it also demonstrates that copy number variation can occur at a different time point in the life ... cell is dividing and becoming two. Copy number variation involves structural changes in the human genome ... in this genetic material. This copy number variation wrote a new chapter in the understanding of ...

Traffic control systems

... of the realities of the road. Unfortunately, the variation in the number of vehicles that queue up at a ... day is huge, Professor Helbing says. None of this variation is considered when optimizing for typical Monday ... control schemes are usually restricted to a variation of cycle-based control. One strategy is not ...

Genetic contributions to human brain morphology and intelligence

... al., 1999]. Recent findings have shown, that variation in total gray and white matter volume of the ... of genes or common environmental influences cause variation in two distinct phenotypes. It might be, for ... intelligence. Thus, it seems that the individual variation in morphology of areas involved in attention, ...

Testosterone turns male juncos into blustery hunks -- and bad dads

... field under natural conditions that individual variation in the hormone testosterone maps onto variation in aggression and parental behavior," said ... "The next essential step is to relate variation in testosterone to actual measures of fitness, ...

Researchers find new gene linked to breast cancer

... inherited cancer risks. To understand whether variation in HMMR increases breast cancer risk, the ... component of the study found that women with a variation in the HMMR gene had a higher risk of breast ... cancer in women under age 40 who carry the HMMR variation was 2.7 times the risk in women without this ...

New book presents successful strategies for probing genetic variation

... first manual specifically geared towards genetic variation studies has just been released by Cold Spring ... yet detailed guide for performing genetic variation studies that are feasible for a wide range of ... are turning their attention to natural variation among individuals. Physical characteristics such ...

The importance of gene regulation for common human disease

... diseases are more likely to be due to genetic variation in regions that control activity of genes, rather ... our intuition about the nature of natural variation in complex traits. "One of the challenges of ... in the cell cultures and tie that to DNA sequence variation We have generated an information resource ...

Gray whales a fraction of historic levels, genetic research says

... The new research measures the amount of genetic variation in current gray whales across ten different ... Station, explained, "Our survey uncovers too much variation for a population of 22,000. The overabundance of genetic variation suggests a much larger population in past ...

First individual genome sequence published

... from this research was the high degree of genetic variation that was found between two chromosomes within a ... publication, we have shown that human-to-human variation is more than seven-fold greater than earlier ... of the genome. This suggests that human-to-human variation is much greater than previously thought. The ...

Genome study shines light on genetic link to height

... result that explains how DNA can affect normal variation in human height, said co-senior author Joel ... of disease, said Hirschhorn. Nearly 90% of the variation in height among most human populations can be ... his colleagues to convincingly prove that the DNA variation in HMGA2 influences height. The genomic find, ...

Scientists show that mitochondrial DNA variants are linked to risk factors for type 2 diabetes

... which highlights the role of mitochondrial genome variation in the pathogenesis of common diseases, is ... effects due to environmental factors or variation in the nuclear genome. Any differences observed between the two rat strains could be attributed to variation in the mitochondria. When comparing the two ...

AGU journal highlights -- Aug. 6, 2009

... climate An overview of global dimming and brightening Can seismic variation in the mantle be explained by temperature alone? New model shows how ... 2009; http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2008JD011470 8. Can seismic variation in the mantle be explained by temperature alone? The structure and ...