populations

Measuring the impact of post-genomics on Mediterranean populations

A recent Genomed-Health 2005 workshop in Tunisia, supported by the European Commission, highlighted the role of the life sciences in improving health in countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea. Delegates at the event also discussed the importance of Euro-Mediterranean partnerships in order to capitalise on post-genomic research. The life sciences ?in particular following the mapping of t...

A new study examines how shared pathogens affect host populations

Many pathogens are able to infect multiple species within a community and are commonly transmitted across species. Cross-species transmission is often associated with pathogen emergence and therefore has been considered as a negative factor for humans, wildlife, and species of agricultural importance. Many pathogens like malaria, Lyme disease or West Nile encephalitis that infect multiple hosts a...

New discovery: Molecular variation in one gene affects the growth of natural populations

For the first time, ecologists have been able to show that molecular variation in one gene may affect the growth of a population in its natural habitat. Research Professor Ilkka Hanski, University of Helsinki, and Dr Ilik Saccheri, University of Liverpool, UK, discovered that the population growth of the Glanville fritillary butterfly (Melitaea cinxia) is affected by the allelic composition of th...

Treating populations infected with HIV and latent TB could speed the emergence of drug-resistant TB

In 2005, 46 regional Ministers of Health in Africa declared that a dramatic rise in tuberculosis (TB) cases was cause for emergency. In some African countries, annual TB case notifications have increased as much as four-fold over the past 15 years. The main culprit? The emergence of HIV. When individuals are infected with both HIV and TB, they are more likely to progress from latent TB infection...

Escapee farmed salmon infiltrate fitter wild populations

There is growing concern about the threats that farmed Atlantic salmon escapees constitute to wild salmon populations. In new research published in the journal Molecular Ecology, researchers have found scientific e...

Researchers make progress in studying genetic traits of India-born populations

Despite the fact that the people of India constitute more than one-sixth of the world's entire population, they have been underrepresented in studies related to genetic diseases. And with the growth of modernization, complex genetic diseases associated with urban and western lifestyles have risen to near-epidemic proportions, making genetic cataloging and association studies of particular importa...

Commercial fishing causes dangerous fluctuations in fish populations

Commercial fishing causes serious fluctuations in fish populations leaving them in danger of total collapse, says new research published today. These fluctuations mean current measures in place to control fish stocks may not be sufficient to ensure their sustainability. The research, which is published in today's Nature, involved compiling the largest ever survey of both exploited fish an...

Ongoing collapse of coral reef shark populations

Investigators have revealed that coral reef shark populations are in the midst of rapid decline, and that “no-take zones”—reefs where fishing is prohibited—do protect sharks, but only when compliance with no-take regulations is high. The findings, reported by William Robbins and colleagues at James Cook University and its ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, appear in the December 5th...

Antarctic warming to reduce animals at base of ecosystem, shift some penguin populations southward

The warming most global climate models predict will do more harm than simply raise the sea levels that most observers fear. It will make drastic changes in fragile ecosystems throughout the world, especially in the Antarctic. A warming trend during the last few decades in the Antarctic Peninsula has already forced penguin populations to migrate south and perhaps diminished the abundance o...

Individuals and populations differ in gene activity levels, not just genes

Much like how a person's genetic code differs from other individuals, the level at which those genes are activated in the body differs from one person to another, scientists have learned. And though some of those differences in gene activity are seen between different populations ?Asians versus Europeans, for instance ?more of those variations are due to individual-level factors, further obscurin...