H3N2 flu virus (Courtesy www.primidi.com) 
Each year, somewhere between five and 15 percent of the world’s population becomes infected during influenza A epidemics. These flu outbreaks are linked to as many as a half a million deaths annually, according to WHO. While vaccinations can be effective, influenza viruses often evolve so rapidly that creating effective vaccines can be difficult.
WHO’s Global Influenza Surveillance Network — consisting of more than 100 labs in 80 countries — tracks influenza virus evolution in order to try to decide which strains should be used in seasonal vaccines. But the data can also contribute to a better …read more

(Image courtesy of CIMA http://www.cima.es/areas1_neuro/areas1_neuro_english.html) 
Data from one of the first genome-wide association studies (GWAS), which focused on Parkinson’s diseases and was funded in part by The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF), is now being made available to researchers through the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) and the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), both of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). NHGRI hopes to speed up research by making previously unavailable GWAS data sets publicly available to the research community.
The study, conducted by researchers at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., in collaboration with scientists at Perlegen …read more

 
Papers published in Nature and Science this week support the previously held theory that humans originated in East Africa, migrating outward until they reached all parts of the globe. But the genetic work from these studies brings a new level of precision to human migration studies, with each group finding subtle and intriguing details that shed light on different aspects of human genetic variation and ancestry.
Study 1 – University of Michigan:This study was based on the analysis of more than 500,000 SNPs and nearly 400 copy number variants — sections of DNA that are repeated or duplicated in the genome — for 485 individuals. These samples, …read more

 
Our early human ancestors originated from a hot, humid climate where natural selection focused on dispersing heat.  As humans migrated to colder climates there would have been evolutionary pressure to adapt to their new settings by boosting the processes that produce and retain heat.
Genes involved in energy metabolism are therefore likely to be central to heat and cold tolerance. 
Researchers from the Dept of Human Genetics, University of Chicago, USA tested this theory by genotyping 873 tag SNPs in these ‘cold tolerance’ genes in 54 worldwide populations and found a correlation with climatic variations.
Among the results were strongest signals from several SNPs, that had previously …read more

 
12th February is the 199th birthday of Charles Darwin (1809 – 1882) and the 150th birthday of his theory of evolution.  Darwin’s subsequent book titled ‘The Origin of Species’ still holds relatively firm in this modern age.
Today, Darwin’s groundbreaking work on the origin of species forms the basis of modern evolutionary biology and is at the heart of biomedical research.
Evolution happens every day, and it affects every species including us.
Elaine Warburton   www.geneticsandhealth.com

 
deCode has analysed its 200 year old Icelandic genealogical database and found that the closer the kinship of the couple the more children they are likely to have. This study provides the most comprehensive answer yet to the longstanding question of how kinship affects fertility in humans.
For example, for women born between 1800 and 1824, those with a mate related at the level of a third cousin had an average of 4.04 children and 9.17 grandchildren, while those related to their mates as eighth cousins or more distantly had 3.34 children and 7.31 grandchildren. For women born in the period 1925-1949 …read more

 
Nature constantly ”shuffles” our genes around in our genome, creating a genetic cocktail of human chromosomes and trying out different changes as it does so.  Some of these changes represent neither a positive nor a negative mutation or a competitive advantage.  One such ’shuffle’ is eye color.
Originally we all had brown eyes.  Then about 6-10,000 years ago a genetic mutation in the OCA 2 gene arose causing a ’switch’ which literally switched off our ability to produce brown eyes.
The OCA 2 gene codes for the so-called P gene which is involved in the production of melanin, the pigment that gives color …read more

 
Human chromosomes (grey) capped by telomeres (white)
We all know the benefits of regular exercise but scientists now have proof that it can really make you look younger! Telomeres, regions of highly repetitive DNA at the end of a linear chromosome shorten over time.  The shortening of telomeres is strongly correlated with aging and it is believed that telomeres have a function in the aging process. Latest research indicates that the rate of shortening of telomeres increases with an increasingly sedentary lifestyle.
A group of 2,401 white twins was studied by Lynn F. Cherkas, Ph.D., of King’s College London, and colleagues. The …read more

Micrograph images of synthetic Mycoplasma genitalium 
J Craig Venter and his team at the J Craig Venter Institute Rockville, Md. Venter continue to expand our horizons of what constitutes life.  They have built, from scratch, a synthetic chromosome containing all the genetic material needed to produce a primitive bacterium – this is considered a giant step toward the creation of artificial life.
The feat is described in an online edition of the journal Science.  A team led by Dr. Hamilton Smith, director of the Venter Institute’s Synthetic Biology Group, has manufactured from laboratory chemicals a ring of DNA containing all the genes of Mycoplasma genitalium – …read more

The EU funded GEN2PHEN project plans to internationally orchestrate the electronic gathering and use of data that show how gene sequences (’genotypes’) contribute to individual differences in disease, drug response, and other characteristics (’phenotypes’). These relationships (usually in the form of “genotype-phenotype” information stored in scattered databases) are deemed to become essential for future prognosis, diagnosis and treatment of diseases.
GEN2PHEN will build a set of database components, tools and technologies that will help all research results pertaining to genome variation and disease to be properly integrated and immediately available for holistic analysis via the internet. The project will deploy a …read more