It seems like the news hasn’t gobbled up this news as adamantly as it did the news of the bonobo reserve in the Congo, but it is nonetheless newsworthy and crucial to the study of bonobos. The Department of Evolutionary Anthropology at the Max Planck Institute put out a press release that they just acquired [...]
Entries Tagged as ‘Molecular Biology’
November 14, 2007
Alternative Splicing in Humans & Chimps
I could swear that in the past I had covered news that the minute genetic and massive phenotypic differences between humans and chimpanzees are due to the alternative splicing. But I can’t seem to find the post at all… there maybe a slight chance I didn’t post about it but I’m pretty sure I did [...]
May 21, 2007
Brainstorming the Future of Primate Brain Evolution Research
The following post is a departure from my usual reporting on an interesting primate related tidbit of research. I’ll be posting about how I have thought about how to study primate brain evolution research. These are just ideas I have brainstormed. It is very probable that people are doing this out in their respective labs [...]
May 9, 2007
A SNP Resource for Rhesus Macaque (Macaca mulatta) Genomics
I’m posting this as I run out the door, so forgive me if it is a bit brief and incomplete in explanation… but I have to share this resource/paper with you because less than 1 month ago the Macaque genome draft was released, and this publication is the first application, I know, of the draft [...]
May 8, 2007
The Human Mutation - a mutation in neuropsin is found only in humans
So if you have been in the dark about what’s been making a lot of buzz around the internet today, have no worries. I’m more than happy to explain it to you, because this new research will really help us understand what it means to be human and non-human.
How, you ask?
Well, it identifies a unique [...]
April 25, 2007
A bit on Chimpanzee kin selection, especially brother-brother relations
In chimpanzee communities, it pays to be close with your maternal brethren, according to a brand new publication in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The large chimpanzee population at Ngogo in Kibale National Park, Uganda, was studied for this research paper both thru behavioral and molecular approaches. I’m [...]
April 12, 2007
Science magazine unveils the Macaque Genome
Science just published a whole slew of papers, posters, news articles, and the like on the Rhesus Macaque because the macaque genome, the first monkey genome to be sequenced, has been unveiled today.
I haven’t read all of the content in this special issue, but from what I have skimmed so far it’s all focused on [...]
February 17, 2007
Making sense of the scrambled Gibbon genome
Remember when I told you that the genome of the gibbon was to be sequenced, all the way back in July of 2006? At that time, I assumed it will be finished sooner than the 3 years the NHGRI planned out for the project.
Well, I think my estimatation is right on track…. however researchers [...]
July 21, 2006
NHGRI to sequence the Gibbon genome
The white-cheeked gibbon (Nomascus leucogenys) will be the next species of primate to get its genome sequenced by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) in Bethesda, Maryland, accoridng to ScienceNOW Daily News. After decoding the human and chimpanzee sequence, the NHGRI has seen how the benefits of related genomes have helped medicine and other [...]
June 28, 2006
More on the Mouse Lemurs (Microcebus) of Eastern Madagascar
I’ve tracked down the paper published in April of 2006, in the journal International Journal of Primatology, on the discovery of the three new species of mouse lemur from Madagascar. The paper is titled, “Revision of the Mouse Lemurs (Microcebus) of Eastern Madagascar” from Edward E. Louis, et al. The abstract reads,
“Phylogenetic analysis of ca. [...]
