How to live 400 years

Genome of the longest-lived vertebrate decoded: It is huge and has special repair capabilities

12-Sep-2024 - The Greenland Shark (Somniosus microcephalus), an elusive dweller of the depths of the northern Atlantic and the Arctic Ocean, is the world’s longest-living vertebrate, with an estimated lifespan of about 400 years. An international team of scientists has mapped the Greenland Shark’s genome for ...

Special Software Enhances Accuracy of Genome Annotation for Animals and Plants

"BRAKER3 marks a significant development in bioinformatics and provides academics all over the world access to a high-performance tool for genome annotation"

21-Jun-2024 - The newly developed software BRAKER3 provides scientists all over the world access to a high-performance instrument for genome annotation, i.e. for identifying and labelling several relevant characteristics of a genomic sequence. The software represents a considerable advancement in bioinformatic ...

Rare gene variants identified that play a role in hereditary male hair loss

Researchers find puzzle pieces for hair loss

27-Sep-2023 - Previous research into male pattern hair loss, also termed androgenetic alopecia, has implicated multiple common genetic variants. Human geneticists from the University Hospital of Bonn (UKB) and by the Transdisciplinary Research Unit "Life & Health" of the University of Bonn have now performed a ...

Rare kidney disease is genetically decoded

The entire genome of a human being can be analysed on a single sequencing chip

25-Aug-2023 - Bartter syndrome type 3 is the result of several structural variants in the genome. By using long-read sequencing, Janine Altmüller and her team from the Max Delbrück Center, the BIH and University Hospital Cologne mapped out the rare disease in unprecedented detail. They have now reported their ...

DNA analysis reveals risk of post-meal insulin resistance

Targeted intervention may be possible

14-Jun-2023 - Scientists from the Berlin Institute of Health at Charité (BIH), along with colleagues from the United Kingdom, have found clues as to how we maintain constant blood sugar levels after we have eaten. Analyzing the DNA of nearly 55,000 participants from different studies, they identified ten ...

Sophisticated gene memory: Researchers develop new method to genetically compare hundreds of animal species

02-May-2023 - Thanks to great technological advances, the genetic material of living beings can now be sequenced at a rapid rate. Comparisons of genomes, whether of closely related or completely different species, reveal particularly interesting findings. In this way, information can be obtained on ...

Molecular archeology: 1200-year-old DNA sequences from Madagascar lead to the discovery of an extinct tortoise

Genetic analyses reveal the lost world of giant tortoises in the western Indian Ocean

13-Jan-2023 - An international research team led by Senckenberg scientist Uwe Fritz has succeeded in sequencing the genetic material of up to 1200-year-old tortoise finds from the western Indian Ocean. This led to the discovery of a tortoise species from Madagascar that went extinct in the Middle Ages and ...

Microbiologists improve taste of beer

05-Oct-2022 - Belgian investigators have improved the flavor of contemporary beer by identifying and engineering a gene that is responsible for much of the flavor of beer and some other alcoholic drinks.The researchappears inApplied and Environmental Microbiology, a journal of the American Society for ...

Genetic Testing Before Pregnancy Detects up to Half of the Risk

Are would-be parents carrying a genetic risk of serious illnesses that they could potentially pass on to their children?

01-Sep-2022 - In the USA, doctors recommend that couples have genetic screening before trying to conceive. Researchers at the University of Zurich have now shown that a maximal variant of this test detects the risk in 44 percent of couples who are related by blood, and in just 5 percent of other couples. ...

Genes against drought

10-Dec-2019 - Climate change is leading to a decrease in soil moisture and an increase in severe droughts in Europe that adversely affect its woodlands. For a long time now, forest conservationists have been thinking very carefully about which trees they should use for reforestation. Researchers from the ...