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Month: May 2013

Entire European continent shares ancestry

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The following is an excerpt of a longer story. Find a link to the full story below.

Europeans all shared a common ancestor just 1,000 years ago, new genetic research reveals.

Scientists drew this conclusion, detailed May 7 in the journal PLOS Biology, by calculating the length of regions of shared DNA from 2,000 Europeans.

The same technique hasn’t been applied to other continents, but people in other parts of the world are just as likely to be closely related, the researchers said.

“In fact, it’s likely that everyone in the world is related over just the past few thousand years,” said study co-author Graham Coop, a geneticist at the University of California, Davis.

View the full story here: European DNA Study Links People Across Continent To Shared Common Ancestor

Infant formula: Baby’s first GM food

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The following is an edited excerpt of a longer story. Find a link to the full story below.

As You Sow, a nonprofit group that focuses on shareholder advocacy, introduced a resolution at the Abbott Laboratory shareholders meeting in late April, asking the company to remove genetically modified ingredients, like soy, from their Similac line of infant formula products until long-term safety testing has shown GMOs are not harmful.

Abbott urged shareholders to reject the proposal, arguing that the large-scale production of certain genetically-modified crops would make it difficult to obtain enough non-GMO supply to meet global demand.

Shareholders complied, overwhelmingly rejecting the resolution, with 904,369,801 voting against the resolution; 30,029,557 voted in favor of it.

View the full story here: Infant Formula: Baby’s First GMOs

Sweden: Busting the myths about genetically modified crops

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The following is an edited excerpt of a longer story. Find a link to the full story below.

We know enough to distinguish between high-risk and low-risk genetic modifications, and it is now time to apply that knowledge in practice, Swedish researchers say

It is now four decades since the first experiments with recombinant DNA that led to a brief voluntary moratorium. It is also about two decades since the first genetically modified plant was commercialised.  The precautionary measures taken at an early stage in these developments were justified by lack of knowledge about a new technology and our inability to predict its negative consequences for environment and society. In particular in Europe, this is the way biotechnology is often still discussed. We think it is time to dismiss three myths that are common in those discussions.

View the full story here: Busting the myths about GMOs in agriculture

 

Video: Genetically engineered crops in wake of Proposition 37

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The following is an edited summary of a half-hour video. Find a link to the full summary and video below.

In a recently posted half-hour special,  California public television station KQED Quest explores genetically engineered crops in the wake of Proposition 37, the 2012 ballot initiative that would have required foods containing genetically engineered ingredients to be labeled in California. Prop 37 lost, but some 6 million Californians voted in favor of labeling, signaling that many aren’t completely comfortable with genetically engineered food.

Are the benefits of genetically engineered foods worth the risks? Next Meal: Engineering Food explores how genetically engineered crops are made, their pros and cons, and what the future holds for research and regulations such as labeling.

View the full summary and video: Next Meal: Engineering Food

Michael Pollan: Monsanto’s influence preventing debate on GM labeling

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The following is an edited excerpt of a longer story. Find a link to the full story below.

From California’s Proposition 37 initiative to New York City’s soda ban,  Michael Pollan argues hat local efforts hold the key to challenging the agricultural industry’s stranglehold over national food policy.

In a recent interview with Democracy Now!, Pollan warns that United States risks falling into a “two-class food system,” where only those who can afford to live outside the industrial food system can access healthy ways to eat.  Pollan also charges that Monsanto’s lobbying influence in Washington and in state legislatures is preventing a debate about GMO labeling.

View the full story here: Michael Pollan: From GMOs to NYC’s Soda Ban, Local Efforts Challenge Agri-Giants’ National Control

Protein complex mutated in about 20% of all cancers

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The following is an excerpt of a longer piece. You can find a link to full story below.

Researchers identified a group of proteins that are mutated in about one-fifth of all human cancers. The Stanford University School of Medicine team says the finding suggests that the proteins, which are members of a protein complex called BAF (or mammalian SWI/SNF) that affects how DNA is packaged in cells, work to suppress the development of tumors in many types of tissues.

View the full article here: Protein Complex Mutated in about 20% of All Cancers

Europeans are one big family

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The following is an excerpt of a longer story. You can find a link to the full story below.

DNA analyses of people across the European continent suggest that right from Ireland to the Balkans, Europeans are basically one big family closely related to one another for the past thousand years, according to a study published in the journal PLoS Biology.

The study was conducted by Graham Coop, a professor of evolution and ecology at the University of California, Davis, along with co-author Peter Ralph, now a professor at the University of Southern California.

“What’s remarkable about this is how closely everyone is related to each other. On a genealogical level, everyone in Europe traces back to nearly the same set of ancestors only a thousand years ago,” Coop, co-author of the study, said in a news release. “This was predicted in theory over a decade ago, and we now have concrete evidence from DNA data

View the full article here: Europeans are One Big Family Closely Related for the Past 1000 Years

The ‘golden age’ of genetics that wasn’t

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The following is an excerpt of a longer story. Find a link to the full story below.

The media marked the publication’s 60th anniversary with much fanfare, hailing the breakthrough that “ushered in the age of genetics”, and calling it “one of the most important scientific discoveries of all time”.

To some extent, they are right.

But, almost from the beginning – and most intensely since 1971, when Time magazine published a special section entitled “The New Genetics: Man into Superman” – science and society alike have tended to overestimate the impact of genetics.

VIew the full story here: The ‘golden age’ of genetics that wasn’t

“Dorian Gray” gene delays onset of aging

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The following is an excerpt of a longer story. Find a link to the full story below.

American researchers found that the gene, which has previously been implicated in Parkinson’s Disease, extended the healthy lifespan of fruit flies by more than 25 per cent.

They said that the research could have important implications for ageing and disease in humans.

VIew the full story here: Dorian Gray gene could add decades to life

DIY biotechnology: Glowing trees

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The following is an edited excerpt of a longer story. Find a link to the full story below.

Hoping to give new meaning to the term “natural light,” a small group of biotechnology hobbyists and entrepreneurs has started a project to develop plants that glow, potentially leading the way for trees that can replace electric streetlamps and potted flowers luminous enough to read by.

Rather than being the work of a corporation or an academic laboratory, this project is being planned by a small group of hobbyist scientists in one of the growing number of communal laboratories springing up around the nation as biotechnology becomes cheap enough to give rise to a do-it-yourself movement.The project is also being financed in a D.I.Y. sort of way: It has attracted more than $250,000 in pledges from about 4,500 donors in about two weeks on the Web site Kickstarter.

View the full story here: A Dream of Trees Aglow at Night

Charlemagne for everyone! Royal DNA all around

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The following is an editorial summary of a longer story. Find a link to the full story below.

A new study in PLoS Biology uses genetics to point out that all of Europe is essentially one big family, closely related for the past thousand years. Science writer Carl Zimmer uses this study as a launching point to re-examine the nature of human relatedness across history. He traces the history of the new study to a paper from Joseph Chang in 1999 which used mathematical models to map the web of human relatedness to the newest paper from Peter Ralph and Graham Coop, two biologists at the University of California, Davis. Zimmer writes:

Their results, published today in PLOS Biology, both confirm Chang’s mathematical approach and enrich it. Even within the past thousand years, Ralph and Coop found, people on opposite sides of the continent share a lot of segments in common–so many, in fact, that it’s statistically impossible for them to have gotten them all from a single ancestor. Instead, someone in Turkey and someone in England have to share a lot of ancestors. In fact, as Chang suspected, the only way to explain the DNA is to conclude that everyone who lived a thousand years ago who has any descendants today is an ancestor of every European. Charlemagne for everyone!

View the full story here: Charlemagne’s DNA and Our Universal Royalty

Head for numbers? Brain anatomy best predictor of math aptitude

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The following is an editorial summary of a longer story. Find a link to the full story below.

“A child who is good at learning math may literally have a head for numbers,” writes Meghan Rosen at Science News. A new study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has found evidence that the physical structure of children’s brains (that is, their biology as shaped by environment) is correlated with their ability to succeed when tutored in math. An excerpt from Rosen’s piece:

Scientists have spent years studying brain regions related to math performance in adults, but how kids learn is still “a huge question,” says Supekar. He and colleagues tested IQ and math and reading performance in 24 8- and 9-year-olds, then scanned their brains in an MRI machine. The scans measured the sizes of different brain structures and the connections among them.

It appears the size and connectedness of children’s hippocampuses — usually associated with memory formation — were the most important factors in predicting their success in math.

View the full story here: Brain measurements predict math progress with tutoring

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Scientists sequence kiwifruit genome

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The following is an excerpt of a longer story. Find a link to the full story below.

An international team of scientists led by Zhangjun Fei of the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research (BTI) at Cornell University, New York; Yongsheng Liu at Hefei University of Technology; and Hongwen Huang at South China Botanical Garden, has sequenced and assembled a draft genome of kiwifruit (Actinidia chinensis). A heterozygous diploid Chinese kiwifruit variety, called Hongyang, was used to generate the draft genome sequence, which is accessible at the online Kiwifruit Genome Database (http://bioinfo.bti.cornell.edu/kiwi).

View the full story here: SCIENTISTS SEQUENCE KIWIFRUIT GENOME

View the original news release here: BTI scientist co-leads kiwifruit genome sequencing project

Relax: It’s good for your genes

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The following is an excerpt of a longer story. Find a link to the full story below.

While it might seem that your body and brain aren’t doing much when you’re on break, relaxing triggers a flurry of genetic activity that is responsible for some important health benefits.

When you really relax — using any type of meditative technique such as deep breathing, yoga or prayer — the genes in your body switch to a different mode. Genes that counteract the chemical effects of stress  kick in, while those responsible for driving more anxious and alert states take a backseat. And a new study shows that long-term practice of relaxation techniques can significantly enhance these genetic benefits.

View the full story here: Relax: It’s Good for Your Genes

Genome digest: What researchers are learning as they sequence, map, and decode species’ genomes

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The following is an editorial summary of a longer story. Find a link to the full story below.

What can the coelacanth genome tell us about the evolution of limbs? What secrets do turtle genomes hold to holding one’s breath for an entire winter? How do bacteria bounce back after their encounters with vaccinated people? This article offers a breakdown of the latest in genome-mapping studies and their implications of human and agricultural health.

VIew the full story here: Genome Digest: What researchers are learning as they sequence, map, and decode species’ genomes

Harvard professor urges Ugandans to embrace ag biotech

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The following is an edited excerpt.

During a recent speech, Professor Calestous Juma, the Director of the Science, Technology and Globalization Project at Harvard University urged the Ugandan parliament to pass a biotechnology bill that would pave the way for the introduction of GM crops.

“Biotechnology and genetic engineering have the potential to do for agriculture what mobile technology has done for the communications sector in Africa however it would be dangerous to adopt GMOs without clear flexible and supportive biotechnology regulations. Therefore I ask the Ugandan Parliament to pass the Biotechnology Bill,” Calestous told his audience.

Read the original article here: Harvard don vouches for modified seeds

 

Trader Joe’s under fire for selling GMOs

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The following is an edited excerpt.

Grocery chain Trader Joe’s is now the focus of an effort by the Consumers Union, which took the grocer to task with a full-page ad in The Los Angeles Times saying that the company is “selling meat from animals fed a steady stream of antibiotics.”

Trader Joe’s offers private label goods that shun genetically engineered ingredients, but Consumers Union, which publishes Consumer Reports magazine, says that the privately owned grocer has refused to meet to discuss the issue.e focus of an effort by the Consumers Union, which took the grocer to task with a full-page ad in the Los Angeles Times saying that the company is “selling meat from animals fed a steady stream of antibiotics.”

Read the original story here: Trader Joe’s Under Fire for Selling GMOs, Lead-Laced Candy

 

 

Physician on GMOs: They’re not what you’ve been told

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Genetically Modified Organisms are bad. Monsanto is evil. These crops are killing us.

Well, not really. This is not a simple topic – that is, it is not as simple as “this is bad and we shouldn’t do it” or “its not natural, so it must be bad.” Nor is it “corporate evil.”

My background about this topic: I did genetic engineering as a graduate student at the University of Chicago. What we did with genetic engineering, people have been doing for thousands of years, the difference is we did it in a laboratory.

View the original story here:  GMO: They’re Not What You’ve Been Told

David Suzuki: GE trees pose environmental threats

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The following is an edited excerpt.

Deforestation is already an enormous problem, and the last thing we need is to further stress our precious native forests and the flora and fauna that depend on them.

A documentary A Silent Forest: The Growing Threat, Genetically Engineered Trees  hosted by David Suzuki, an award-winning geneticist and author of 52 books, discusses how GE trees may adversely impact ecological systems on a grand scale, with potentially catastrophic effects.

As Dr. Suzuki explains, the problem with genetic engineering has to do with the fact that GE plants and animals are created using horizontal gene transfer (also called horizontal inheritance), as contrasted with vertical gene transfer, which is the mechanism in natural reproduction.

Read the original article here:  GE Trees May Be Even More Damaging to the Environment than GE Foods