Ministers plan a DNA database for dogs to help tackle a surge in pet thefts during the pandemic 

Ministers plan a DNA database for dogs to help tackle a surge in pet thefts during the pandemic New system would requires owners to supply DNA swab from their pet’s mouth  Would be stored on a database used by police and local authority officials Follows rise in pet thefts during pandemic as puppy demand hit … Read more

Identical twins separated at birth in South Korea discover each other through DNA testing

Identical win sisters who were separated at birth in South Korea and adopted by two different American families recently learned that one another existed — and reunited for the first time on their 36th birthday.  Neither Molly Sinert nor Emily Bushnell knew that they were twins, or had much information at all about their backgrounds … Read more

Indigenous South American tribes found to have evidence of ancient Australian DNA

First humans who crossed the Bering Strait some 15,000 years ago had indigenous Australian DNA that is now found in the bloodline of South America tribes, study finds Previous work found ancient Australian DNA in modern-day Amazonians  However, a new study finds the ancestral DN runs deeper in South America A genetical analysis found tribes along the Pacific … Read more

Paleoanthropologist says handshakes are not a learned cultural behaviour but part of our DNA 

ANTHROPOLOGY THE HANDSHAKE  by Ella Al-Shamahi (Profile £10.99, 176pp)  David Attenborough once found himself in a ‘potentially hairy’ situation in New Guinea when a remote tribe charged at him with spears. Ever the gentleman, Attenborough calmly extended his hand and said, ‘Good afternoon’. The tribe members pumped his hand up and down. Granted, this was … Read more

Lightning bolts ‘unlocked the phosphorus necessary for the creation of DNA’

Lighting striking the surface of planet Earth billions of years ago may have unlocked the phosphorus necessary for the creation of DNA, cells and bones, a new study has revealed. Researchers at Yale and the University of Leeds say the essential spark may have taken a quintillion – a number with 30 zeroes – lightning … Read more

DNA testing on remains of Richard III could finally tell if he really was an evil King

He was the King depicted by William Shakespeare as a hunchback villain. But now geneticists are expected to shed light on whether or not Richard III really did have a dark side.  Scientists at Leicester University’s department of genetics have sequenced the complete genome of the last Plantagenet King. The team is led by Professor … Read more

DNA from cave bear dates back 360,000 years and is oldest extracted from animal not in permafrost

Scientists have successfully identified, extracted and analysed the oldest ever DNA from an animal which was not frozen and preserved in permafrost.  The 360,000-year-old genetic material came from the bone of a cave bear, the larger and vegetarian relative of polar and brown bears, which died in what is now Georgia during the Middle Pleistocene. … Read more

World’s oldest DNA is extracted from the tooth of a mammoth

The world’s oldest DNA is 1.2 million years old and comes from a previously unknown genetic lineage of mammoth, called the Krestovka mammoth, a new study reveals.   Researchers analysed genomes from three ancient mammoths, using DNA recovered from mammoth teeth buried in Siberian permafrost.  One genome dated back 1.2 million years and has been named the … Read more

Scientists capture the highest resolution images of a single MOLECULE of DNA

The highest resolution images of a single molecule of DNA ever captured have been taken by a team of scientists, and they show atoms ‘dancing’ as they twist and writhe. Researchers from Sheffield, Leeds and York universities combined advanced atomic microscopy with supercomputer simulations to create videos of the molecules. The resolution combined with the … Read more

Genetics: Some people have pointier noses because of DNA fragments we share with MICE, study claims

Do you have a hooter to rival Pinocchio’s? If so, you may be able to blame a newly-discovered gene that we share with mice which affects the pointiness of our noses.   Experts from the UK and France analysed the genomes and face shapes of 6,000 people from Latin America, finding 32 gene regions that influence facial … Read more