Monthly Archives: September 2014

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 17, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- Present-day Europeans are the descendants of at least three groups of ancient humans, according to a new study.

Previous research suggested that Europeans descended from indigenous hunter-gatherers and early European farmers. But, a new genetic analysis involving ancient bone samples revealed they are also the descendants of Ancient North Eurasians. Nearly all present-day Europeans have genetic material from this third ancestral group, researchers from Harvard Medical School said.

In conducting its investigation into Europeans' heritage, the team of researchers collected and sequenced the DNA of more than 2,300 people currently living around the world. They also examined DNA from nine ancient humans from Germany, Luxembourg and Sweden.

The ancient samples were taken from the bones of eight hunter-gatherers who lived about 8,000 years ago, and one farmer who lived about 7,000 years ago.

"Ancient DNA has emerged as a powerful technology that makes it possible to go back in time to understand how people in the past relate to people today," study co-senior author, David Reich, professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School, said in a university news release.

About 7,500 years ago in Europe, agriculture from the Near East brought early farmers into contact with hunter-gatherers who had been living in Europe for tens of thousands of years. Nearly all Europeans are the result of the mixing of these two ancient populations.

"There was a sharp genetic transition between the hunter-gatherers and the farmers, reflecting a major movement of new people into Europe from the Near East," noted Reich.

The study's authors found, however, Ancient North Eurasians also contributed DNA to present-day Europeans. Ancient North Eurasians also likely contributed DNA to people who crossed the Bering Strait into the Americas more than 15,000 years ago, according to the researchers.

"Nearly all Europeans have ancestry from all three ancestral groups," explained the study's first author, Iosif Lazaridis, a research fellow in genetics in Reich's lab.

"Differences between them are due to the relative proportions of ancestry. Northern Europeans have more hunter-gatherer ancestry -- up to about 50 percent in Lithuanians -- and Southern Europeans have more farmer ancestry," Lazaridis said in the news release.

See the original post:
Europeans Are Descendants of at Least 3 Ancient Human Groups: Study

Dogs, humans attack cancer together

By Ed Yeates

September 18th, 2014 @ 7:02pm

SALT LAKE CITY It appears dogs and humans are much more alike genetically than we believed, and what's saving their lives could save our lives as well. In fact, researchers are "going to the dogs," so to speak, to form a unique partnership.

And why shouldn't they?

The lifelong bonding between humans and dogs is eloquent. We love them as members of our families. Their loyalty to us is boundless. And now, that bond goes much deeper.

At Cottonwood Animal Hospital, Heidi Richmond's dog Grizz is being treated with a vaccine that's a form of immunotherapy. The treatment is approved only for oral melanomas in dogs, but designed from human genetics. Veterinarian Nathan Cox says this kind of match-up intrigues researchers.

"The genetics of cancer in dogs is very similar to what it is in people, " he said. "That allows us a baseline to be able to study cancer in an alternate species."

For Grizz and other dogs with cancer this human genetic product is different enough to trigger an immune response but similar enough to the dogs own melanoma to cross react training the immune system to attack the cancer cells.

"We have dogs living out past three to four years with the vaccine, so it's more than doubled survival times and in some dogs," Cox said. "It's actually resulted in a cure for their disease."

Go here to read the rest:
Dogs, humans attack cancer together

Contact Information

Available for logged-in reporters only

Newswise The Genetics Society of America today announced new additions to the editorial board of its peer-reviewed, peer-edited journal G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics. Since the journals launch in June 2011, its editorial board of academic experts has been instrumental in shaping G3 into an important forum for the publication of useful genetics findings and resources.

As the breadth of research published in the journal continues to grow, Editor-in-Chief Brenda Andrews, PhD, has appointed two new Deputy Editors-in-Chief, who will contribute to the oversight of key sections:

Also, Stephen Wright, PhD, University of Toronto, has been appointed as a new Senior Editor for Population and Evolutionary Genetics and Genomics and will spearhead the journals efforts to strengthen coverage of in this area.

The new Deputy Editors-in-Chief and Senior Editor are joined by several new Associate Editor appointments to the editorial board this year:

Genetics is a fast-paced field. The expanded editorial board will help us keep up with the growing volume and diversity of research being submitted to G3, said Brenda Andrews, G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics Editor-in-Chief and Professor and Chair of the Banting & Best Department of Medical Research, University of Toronto.

G3 was created by the Genetics Society of America to meet the critical and growing need of the genetics community for rapid review and publication. The journal offers an opportunity to publish the puzzling finding, useful dataset, or highly focused research that may not have been submitted for publication due to a lack of perceived impact.

New Editor Details:

Eduard Akhunov Kansas State University G3 Associate Editor

Read the original:
New Editors Join G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics, an Open Access Journal of the Genetics Society of America