Interbreeding in Early Humans- Much More Widespread Than Previously Thought

DNA found in ancient bones from Spain  suggest that interbreeding between human species in Ice Age Europe was more widespread than suspected.

Geneticists at the Max Planck Institute  in Germany extracted  human DNA,  more than 300,000 years old, from  bones found at the bottom of a cave shaft  in northern Spain, where remains of 28 early humans that belong to an unknown species have been discovered.  

The bones suggest that these fore-runners to modern man likely  looked like stocky, barrel-chested Neanderthals. But their genetic samples showed that  maternal DNA, drawn from cell mitochondria, was different than that of Neanderthals and also unlike that of more modern humans. It was most closely related to a little known species called the Denisovans, who were unknown  until 2010 when the dna was isolated from samples from a young female.   Those remains were 40,000 years old which indicates Neanderthals, anatomically modern humans and Denisovans coexisted at that time. 

With the discovery that Neanderthal DNA and the newly discovered material, geneticist Michael Hammer said “This tells us something interesting about how our species evolved. It may be that interbreeding was a common process in all of human evolution. ”

Read complete Wall Street Journal article HERE

Every Human is Related?!

I know...everyone has heard that at various points in the last say million years of human evolution, there were bottlenecks that shrank the population down to near extinction. But what if I were to tell you that everyone's common ancestor died not a few hundred thousand years ago, but most likely less than a thousand years!

This was the core of a curious article in IO9. You can do the family tree thing, but it really comes down to simple math. You had two parents (one hopes) and each of your parents had two. See? Each generation or your number of ancestors doubles every 25 years.

From the article:

• If you take this back just 1,000 years, you'll find that you have well over 500 billion ancestors in a single generation. Considering there's fewer than seven billion people on this planet - and even that is far, far more than any other point in human history - there's something seriously wrong here. The solution, of course, is that you don't have 500 billion distinct ancestors, but rather a much, much smaller number of ancestors reappear over and over and over again in your family tree.
• A person born in England during the late 40s say, would have 60,000 ancestors when America was discovered. 95% would have been unique individuals. Twenty generations would net 600,000 ancestors, and now 33% are duplicates. Going back to the 1300s and have had 3.5 million - 30 percent real, 70 percent duplicates.
  
• The maximum number of "real" ancestors occurs around 1200 AD - 2 million, some 80 percent of the population of England.

So as you can see, less than 1000 years ago everyone claiming European ancestry that is alive today had for all intents and purposes... Now, going back even 200 more years brings up numbers that exceeded the population at the time and it fast approaches a number of all the people who have ever lived.... Since even 800 years ago gives us a duplicate of over 70% then a 1000 years gives you for all intents and purposes 100% common ancestors.

don't say it! nope....unuh don't

Catch many more interesting fact in the complete article at IO9 here

Judge Rules Genes Can't Be Patented

IO9 reports that a judge recently ruled against the pharmaceutical industry stating that a company could not patent a human gene just because they discovered it.

From the article:

• The ruling grew out of a suit brought by the ACLU and Public Patent Foundation against Myriad Genetics, Inc., which had a patent on a gene which can lead to breast cancer.
• The ruling that could invalidate patents held on almost 20 percent of the human genome. There is a long-simmering debate within the biotech and scientific communities over whether it makes sense to patent genes. At this point, most scientists agree that patents on genes retard scientific innovation.
  

complete IO9 article

Undesirable evolution can be reversed, scientists show

But it takes repeated near exterminations, based on changed climate or by the genocidally minded, to do it.

In what almost seems like a triumph of neo-Lamarckism, Stony Brook University School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences Professor David O. Conover has figured out how to reverse evolution in an animal species.

The Secret: want a smaller animal? Kill the largest 90% of that species, let the small survivors breed, then kill the largest 90% of their generation; repeat that through 4 generations and you'll find you have a new subspecies that grows to that size or configuration only. Want a larger animal? Kill off the smallest 90% of them for 4 succeeding generations.

Conover used the tiny fast breeding Atlantic Silverside as his evolution species. The fish travels the shorelines of the Gulf of Maine in large schools, devouring zooplankton and other small items, and themselves being consumed by striped bass, codfish and other fishes and seabirds in season. in addition to being a "forage species" for marine wildlife, it is also subject to heavy commercial exploitation as feedstock for marine aquarium fish food products.

Intensive selective harvesting of the Silversides by commercial netters, leaving the smaller fish behind, seems to have unintentionally genetically reprogrammed they and many other species to grow smaller, said lead author Conover, who subjected successive generations of the fish to the aforedescribed controlled decimations.

"We show that adaptive genetic variation in many traits is finely tuned to natural variation in climate. Much of this variation is caused by a gradient in size-selective winter mortality and involves two- to threefold changes in physiological traits that influence population productivity". ..the pool of genotypes that code for life history traits is a highly dynamic property of populations."

So, if the worst fears of the survivalist types prove true and the global trade industrial transportation system breaks down tomorrow followed by mass disease and starvation, it'll only take until the year 2088 to arrive at the new human subspecies, Homo sapiens minimis , that will be compact, agile and quick maturing. The Minis will be well suited to scavenging the apocalyptic wastelands, and like Verne's Morlocks prey on their bigger genetic relatives.

First Designer Baby to Be Born in UK

From a recent IO9 article: The first truly designer baby will be born in Britain. She's the offspring of a woman whose family had an incredibly high incidence of early breast cancer - all traceable back to a specific gene that causes a predisposition for the disease. Without intervention, her baby would have had a 50-80% chance of getting breast cancer.

Wishing to eradicate the suspect gene the woman had her fertilized embryo tested for the gene. She was able to pick the one who did not express the gene.

Of course the procedure is not 100%. There are many other genes that can cause breast cancer as well as environmental causes.

New Study looks at CroMag + Neander for Modern HomoSap

Ever in search of the kink, IO9 spots an article in Plos One that deals with a new Italian study which revisits the possibility that in some part modern homo-sapiens are the result of blended genetic material from Neanderthal and Cro-magnon or more accurately the early ancestors of Homo-sapiens.

A group of Italian researchers published a new study comparing the DNA from early human bones from about 28,000 years ago with DNA Neanderthal bones.

What is very interesting about the study and ultimately the findings centers on the early HS bones. These bones were discovered very recently and as such are not as likely as earlier samples to be contaminated by genetic material from modern humans handling them.

The researchers sequenced DNA from these bones, testing to see if there was significant overlap with Neanderthal DNA, which would indicate that homo sapiens' DNA had been changed by interbreeding with Neanderthals. But tests of the fossilized DNA revealed no matches. The early HS material looks essentially identical to modern humans while looking significantly different from Neanderthal DNA.


Plos One via IO9

Are birds older than dinosaurs? New evidence!

A new analysis by researchers at the University of Michigan, the University of Chicago, the Centre for Biodiversity Conservation Mexico and Central America, and Boston University offers the strongest molecular evidence yet for an ancient origin of modern birds, suggesting that they arose more than 100 million years ago, not 60 million years ago, as fossils suggest. The question is at the center of a "rocks versus clocks" debate between paleontologists, whose estimates are based on the fossil record, and scientists who use "molecular clock" methods to study evolutionary history. Fossil record contains physical remains of ancient organisms, hence the"rock" analogy. Molecular genetic data or the "clock" method relies on the observation that although mutations occur at random in the genome, when looked at over long stretches of time they occur (or "tick") at a fairly constant rate. However, the two approaches have yielded conflicting results. Both camps insist that the other's data is incomplete.

Click here for the complete article.

I am creating artificial life, declares US gene pioneer

Shaun sends in this from the Guardian Unlimited science website

Craig Venter, the controversial DNA researcher involved in the race to decipher the human genetic code, has built a synthetic chromosome out of laboratory chemicals and is poised to announce the creation of the first new artificial life form on Earth. This will herald a giant leap forward in the development of designer genomes. It is certain to provoke heated debate about the ethics of creating new species and could unlock the door to new energy sources and techniques to combat global warming. A team assembled by Venter, has already constructed a synthetic chromosome that is 381 genes long and contains 580,000 base pairs of genetic code. It is then transplanted into a living bacterial cell and in the final stage of the process it is expected to take control of the cell and in effect become a new life form.

Pig To Human Transplantation Getting Closer

Hey Shaun.....Of Pigs and.....? huh huh? I swear you were dead on with this!!!!

Science Daily — Experiments using pigs genetically engineered for compatibility with the human immune system have raised hopes that cross-species transplantation could soon become an option for patients with diabetes and other currently incurable diseases. However, many scientific hurdles remain before the ultimate goal of inducing long-term tolerance of animal tissues and organs in human recipients.

Progress (is being made) ... with a strain of pigs genetically engineered in the hope of addressing chronic shortages of organs and tissues for transplantation. The animals lack the gene responsible for "alpha-1,3-galactosyltransferase" (GT)—an enzyme normally present in the pig vascular system. Humans have natural, preformed antibodies to GT, resulting in immediate (acute) rejection of any pig-to-human transplant.

First artificial life 'within months'

Scientists could create the first new form of artificial life within months after a landmark breakthrough in which they took the whole genetic makeup - or genome - of a bacterial cell and transplanted it into a closely related species. The team that carried out the first “species transplant” says it plans within months to do the same thing with a synthetic genome made from scratch in the laboratory. There are many possible uses for custom engineered bacteria. Their hope is to engineer a lifeform that would be able to produce bio-fuels. “We would hope to have the first fuel from synthetic organisms certainly within the decade, possibly within half that time.” said Dr Craig Venter the team's leader.

Britain gives nod for animal-human hybrid embryos

Has anyone listened to episode 46 of Beam Me Up? (www.beameup.podomatic.com) in this episode we have a story called "Of Mice and....." by Australian writer Shaun A. Saunders where he takes us to a future where human animal hybrids are common. The story is eminently disturbing. But if you think it's far future sci-fi.....well Shaun sends me this ABC news article to frighten us just a bit more. Here is an excerpt... read this...click the story....and then go listen to Shaun's story...

-Britain cleared the way for scientists to conduct experiments using hybrid animal-human embryos after the government bowed to protests from researchers who said a proposed ban could hurt their work. Scientists want to use the hybrid embryos to find cures for illnesses such as Parkinson's, stroke and Alzheimer's.-

The article goes into more detail, which is all very exciting medical research, one that I really hope succeeds, however, listen to Shaun's story for a frightening possibility of where this could go, without proper control.

Genetic discrimination ban edges closer to reality

By a fairly wide 420-3 margin, the House of Representatives gave a nearly unanimous thumbs-up to the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, which would "prohibit employers from using genetic information or test results when making employment and health benefits decisions" if it gets a similar nod of approval from the Senate. if the bill becomes law, health insurers couldn't use "genetic information to set premiums," nor could they require customers to submit genetic tests. Essentially, this could ensure that any future human mutation hacks you inflict on yourself, or more frightening, any robotic humanoid whose genes would find it out, will be safe from scrutiny come interview time.

Chimps 'more evolved' than humans

Humans, it seems, have been taken down a notch or rung on the evolutionary ladder!
Chimpanzees are the more highly evolved species, according to new research. Evolutionary geneticists at the University of Michigan compared DNA sequences for 13,888 genes shared by human, chimp and rhesus macaques. The research team found that 233 chimp genes, compared with only 154 human ones, have been changed by selection since chimps and humans split from their common ancestor about 6 million years ago.

Click here for more info

submitted by Shaun A. Saunders

GM mosquito 'could fight malaria'

A genetically modified (GM) strain of malaria-resistant mosquito has been created that is better able to survive than disease-carrying insects. These GM insects carry a gene that prevents them from being infected by the malaria parasite and has the added benefit of providing a fitness advantage to the mosquitoes.

In experiments, equal numbers of genetically modified and ordinary "wild-type" mosquitoes were allowed to feed on malaria-infected mice. As they reproduced, more of the GM, or transgenic, mosquitoes survived. After nine generations, 70% of the insects belonged to the malaria-resistant strain.

The question in my mind, though, is what effects on the ecosystems of these areas will replacing an organism low on the food chain with a GM version? Between the news we saw last week and, could this wind up substituting one problem for another?"

Pharm Animals Crank Out Drugs

GTC Biotherapeutics farm in Charlton, Massachusetts, looks like a typical pastoral retreat. But its 1,400 goats don't produce any butter or cheese. Instead, the animals are sophisticated drug incubators, with millions of dollars of potential profit accumulating in their udders each day. GTC Biotherapeutics is among several companies worldwide perfecting the art of "pharming" -- genetically modifying animals to churn out drugs for disorders like hemophilia and cancer.

The technique offers a way to produce large quantities of drugs that are otherwise difficult to develop. It involves genetic modification of an animal embryo's genetic makeup, or genome. Just after fertilization, "pharmers" insert into the embryo a human gene that codes for a particular protein -- usually one that's produced naturally in humans, but that's lacking in people who have certain diseases. They attach that DNA code with a gene that codes for a sugar found in mammalian milk, insuring that the therapeutic protein will be expressed only in the animals' milk or eggs.

posted by Shaun A. Saunders

Cloning opens door to 'farmyard freaks'

Guess I am on a weird food kick today....Hey Shaun, check this one out!

Efforts to clone and genetically modify farm livestock may lead to the creation of "Farmyard Freaks", experts have warned.

A former government adviser warns of a nightmarish situation where "zombie" and fast-growing super-size animals, are the norm.

Large scale farming techniques, commonly used with pigs and chicken, involve keeping animals kept in cramped conditions. For animals like pigs, these conditions can lead to stress and aggression.

Scientists are investigating ways to remove the stress and aggression gene from animals, effectively turning them into complacent zombies.

Anti-cancer chicken eggs produced

English researchers have genetically modified chickens that can lay eggs containing proteins that in turn can be made into cancer-fighting drugs.

The Roslin Institute, says it has produced birds that can produce useful levels of life-saving proteins in egg whites. This could lead to drugs that are cheaper and easier to make.

But it could be another five years before patient trials get the go-ahead and 10 years until a medicine is fully developed, the Roslin Institute cautioned.

Thanks to Shaun for the post