Category Archives: DNA

Computer-generated image of DNA strands. Altayb / iStockphoto/Getty Images

Some of the mutations might be affected by medications, the researchers reported in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

The study adds to the considerable evidence that autism is a condition caused by genetics, and also adds to a growing body of evidence that each person with autism has his or her own pattern of DNA changes.

Related:

"It's noteworthy that we're still finding new autism genes, let alone 18 of them, after a decade of intense focus," said Mathew Pletcher, vice president for genomic discovery at Autism Speaks.

"With each new gene discovery, we're able to explain more cases of autism, each with its own set of behavioral effects and many with associated medical concerns."

Dr. Stephen Scherer of Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children and colleagues studied the DNA of more than 5,000 people in 2,066 families with children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders, including 2,600 affected children.

They did what's known as a genome-wide association study a deep dive looking at all the DNA in a person's cells, and how it's different from another person's.

The 18 genes they identified have not been not previously linked with autism, but they are all involved in brain cell communications. There are many different mutations affecting the genes, the researchers said.

There are also genetic changes that don't affect genes, but that are found in stretches of DNA once called junk DNA that affect the activation of genes.

"In fact, the genetic predisposition toward autism spectrum disorder may be different for almost every individual," the team wrote.

The same team found in 2015 that even siblings with autism

Autism spectrum disorder can range from the mild social awkwardness, including Asperger's syndrome, to profound mental retardation, debilitating repetitive behaviors and an inability to communicate. There's no cure, but experiments with

Autism is becoming

Another survey found it had been diagnosed in

Studies also show it's clear that genetic mutations are responsible for many, if not most cases of autism. Infections during pregnancy also play a role, and it is possible that certain genetic mutations make children more susceptible to brain changes caused by infections in the womb.

One study found 33 new genes associated with autism, and researchers think they may eventually find 1,000 mutations.

It's already known that kids with autism have larger-than-normal brains. One hypothesis is that the growing brain of a child with autism doesn't "prune" unneeded connections properly, and the resulting overgrowth of nerve connections sends the brain into overdrive.

Related:

Another study published Monday found

In the gene study, the researchers found that all of the DNA changes affected brain cells or communication, and many of them might be affected by drugs.

"Sixteen genes contained subdomains that could be targeted by pharmaceutical intervention and seven contained subdomains for which specific drug-gene interactions are known," they wrote. For example, people with certain mutations could try drugs known as allosteric modulators of GABA receptors a class that includes diazepam, also known as Valium; the sleeping pill Ambien and barbiturates.

Autism Speaks is making the data from the project, called MSSNG (it's the missing 'I's' that matter), available freely.

"Through its research platform on the Google Cloud, Autism Speaks is making all of MSSNG's fully sequenced genomes directly available to researchers free of charge, along with analytic tools. In the coming weeks, the MSSNG team will be uploading an additional 2,000 fully sequenced autism genomes, bringing the total to (more than) 7,000."

Originally posted here:
DNA Scan Uncovers 18 Genes Newly Associated With Autism - NBCNews.com

Its hard enough to get a synthetic DNA motor to run in a living celland not just in a test tubebut its even harder to get the DNA motor to start only when it might be needed. Yet DNA motors built by scientists at the University of Alberta have been running smoothly inside cancer cells. Also, each of these molecular engines didnt turn over until its specially designed ignition mechanism received the right key, in this case a cancer-associated microRNA (miRNA).

This resulta demonstration that a synthetic molecular engine may be started by a specific intracellular targetcould encourage scientists to develop diverse diagnostic and drug-delivery applications.

The nanomachine was built from compartments made up of DNA enzyme molecules and substrates. According to its builders, the nanomachine has the required fuels, DNA tracks, and a molecular switch. Additional details of the nanomachines construction appeared March 6 in the journal Nature Communications, in an article entitled, A MicroRNA-Initiated DNAzyme Motor Operating in Living Cells.

The whole motor system is constructed on a 20nm gold nanoparticle (AuNP) decorated with hundreds of substrate strands serving as DNA tracks and dozens of DNAzyme molecules each silenced by a locking strand, wrote the articles authors. Intracellular interaction of a target molecule with the motor system initiates the autonomous walking of the motor on the AuNP.

In the current study, the nanomachine was tuned to detect a specific miRNA sequence found in breast cancer cells. When it came into contact with the targeted molecules, the DNA motor was turned on and produced fluorescence as part of a reaction. The researchers were able to monitor the fluorescence, detecting which cells were cancerous.

"We want to be able to detect cancer or disease markers in very minute amounts before the disease gets out of hand, said Chris Le, Ph.D., Canada Research Chair and a distinguished university professor of laboratory medicine and pathology. That way physicians can attack it very early. The trace amount of the target molecules that may be missed by other techniques can now be detected with this one."

In addition to citing the potential for improved disease diagnosis, the researchers asserted that DNA motors could also be used for precision drug delivery in patients. Conventional targeted drug therapy delivers medicine to a selectively targeted site of action, yet it still affects a large number of molecules that are not diseased. With the DNA motor, the team says a drug payload can be delivered and then released only when triggered by disease-specific molecules.

"You still have some drug molecules going to the normal cellsyou can't avoid that," noted Dr. Le. "Using the DNA motor, we hope to deliver the drug into the cells in an inactive form. Only when the DNA motor encounters the targeted molecules can the drug then be released to be active."

While the team used a breast cancer marker for the study, the aim now is to expand the work to examine a wider range of other disease markers. Further testing on the nanomachines is needed to better understand the full range of capabilities for drug delivery.

The response of the DNAzyme motor is not limited to the miR-10b miRNA [used in this study], the authors of the Nature Communications article indicated. Similar motor systems can be readily constructed to respond to other miRNA and messenger RNA targets. A modification to the design can be made by simply altering the target binding domain of the locking strand. Diverse DNAzyme motors can also be designed to respond to small molecules and proteins in cells.

Read this article:
DNA Motors in Living Cells Start with MicroRNA Keys - Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (blog)

BROCKTON, Mass. (WJAR)

Authorities in Plymouth County asked for the public's help Tuesday in finding a man sought in connection to three rapes, as well as two murders.

A computerized composite of the suspect was created using a sample of his DNA in a process that predicts his physical appearance.

That one piece -- that DNA piece tying these cases and situations together -- is really important, District Attorney Timothy Cruz said Tuesday.

Some of the DNA was found in 2014 when police discovered two bodies stacked atop each other in a wooded area.

The same DNA was also located on three rape victims who were picked up in Brockton, beaten, and then dropped off far outside the city. Authorities noted that all the victims were prostitutes who had been picked up in the same area of downtown.

They were tossed aside like garbage, Cruz said.

However, authorities also said there's no immediate danger to the public because they don't have any evidence that the suspect has committed any crimes since 2014. They're unsure if he's gone dormant or remains active.

Either way, they want him behind bars.

No matter how much technology we have and how many resources the district attorney and the state police and Brockton police may bring to this, at the end of the day we need some help from the public, Brockton Mayor William Carpenter said.

Meanwhile, Cruz said he had the DNA image made after a standard sketch triggered few leads.

Hes hoping that changes going forward, as the DNA profile shows that the suspect had strong ties to West Africa and Western Europe, meaning that hes potentially a member of the city's large Cape Verdean community.

Anyone with information should contact the Plymouth County District Attorney's Office.

Read this article:
Plymouth DA releases DNA-generated sketch of man wanted for rape - Turn to 10

The Oklahoma Genealogical Society Spring Seminar 2017 will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 1 at the Oklahoma History Center, 800 Nazih Zuhdi Drive.

A Day with the Genetic Genealogist Blaine Bettinger, Ph.D., J.D. is the theme of the presentation. Bettinger is an intellectual property attorney and a DNA specialist and creator of the website The Genetic Genealogist online at http://www.thegenetictgenealogist.com.

His lectures will include:

Using Autosomal DNA to Explore Your Genealogy used by genealogists about 2010 to reveal hidden information which was not available in Y-DNA or mtDNA. Autosomal DNA had useful ethnicity estimates, helped with finding long-lost cousins and examining genealogical problems. This test is now a must have tool for genealogy.

Using Third-Party Tools to Analyze Your Autosomal DNA DNA testing companies provide their own analysis of test results. Third-party tools allow test-takers to learn more about their genomic heritage. This lecture will focus on some of these tools such as including admixture calculators and the identification of genetic cousins.

Begging for Spit This lecture, which is a challenge for genealogists, will provide ways to encourage family members to participate in the DNA testing.

The Science Fiction Future of Genetic Genealogy although not available now, the future of genetic genealogy will be available soon. This lecture will provide information on how companies are using DNA and genealogies to reconstruct the genomes of ancestors. The program also will provide information on how the information might be used in the future.

Blaine also is the author of books Guide to DNA Testing and Genetic Genealogy and Genetic Genealogy in Practice.

Registration fee is $50 before March 15, which includes the syllabus and lunch. Registration after March 15 is $60. The registration form is available online at okgensoc.org/events/2017SpringSeminar. Send advance registration and fee to Oklahoma Genealogical Society, P.O. Box 12986, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73157-2986.

If you wish to join or renew your membership in the Oklahoma Genealogical Society membership, the fee is $25 for an individual or $30 for a family membership.

If you have a question, event, idea or an experience you wish to share, email Sharon Burns at sburns@opubco.com.

Read more:
Seminar explores aspects of DNA research - NewsOK.com

Ms. Smith (not her real name) is a freelance writer and programmer with a special and somewhat personal interest in IT privacy and security issues.

Network World | Mar 6, 2017 9:03 AM PT

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

DNA is supposed to be the answer for solving cold cases. For example, Wisconsin police have turned to DNA to help solve a 42-year-old cold case of Baby Sarah. Recently in Niagara Falls, cops found the man responsible for a smash and grab robbery committed 11 years ago, in 2006, via DNA which the man had been ordered to submit for unrelated offences. But it takes some state labs a year-and-a-half to process DNA, so some police departments are bypassing the state labs and creating their own DNA databases to track criminals.

The Associated Press reported:

Dozens of police departments around the U.S. are amassing their own DNA databases to track criminals, a move critics say is a way around regulations governing state and national databases that restrict who can provide genetic samples and how long that information is held.

The actual number of police departments maintaining DNA databases is not known, as there is no state or federal oversight, but AP cited Frederick Harran, an early adopter of a local Pennsylvania DNA database, as saying there are at least 60.

To get around the 18-month wait for Pennsylvania state lab to process DNA, Harran said the DNA samples are turned into a private lab which can get the results out within a month. The private lab work is paid for via money from assets seized from criminals. To Harrans way of thinking and justifying the local DNA database, If they are burglarizing and we don't get them identified in 18 to 24 months, they have two years to keep committing crimes.

Catching crooks is not a bad thing, but not all DNA collected comes from people suspected of crimes. AP explained, Some police departments collect samples from people who are never arrested or convicted of crimes, though in all such cases the person is supposed to voluntarily comply and not be coerced or threatened.

The coercion factor may come into play such as when DNA is collected from kids. San Diego cops can collect DNA from kids if a kid will sign a consent form. The ACLU filed a lawsuit against San Diego after police collected DNA samples from minors without first obtaining parental consent or a warrant.

ACLU attorney Bardis Vakili told AP that when cops take DNA samples from kids without a court order, its hard to imagine its anything other than coerced or involuntary. I think they are trying to avoid transparency and engage in forms of surveillance. We don't know what's done other than it goes into their lab and is kept in a database.

A San Diego officer admitted that cops stopped five boys walking through a park not because they were suspected of having been involved in a crime, but because they were black juveniles wearing blue on a gang holiday. The cops told four of the boys that they could go after submitting to mouth swab and signing a consent form. The fifth boy signed and was swabbed as well before being taken into custody on charges which were dropped due to the illegal stop. Yet the cops kept the DNA.

The EFF said that targeting black children for DNA collection is a gross abuse of power and a gross abuse of technology by law enforcement. Some argue that local DNA databases are as well.

University of Arizona law professor Jason Kreig told AP, The local databases have very, very little regulations and very few limits, and the law just hasn't caught up to them. Everything with the local DNA databases is skirting the spirit of the regulations.

Its one thing for DNA to possibly be used to store all of the worlds data in one room and quite another for cops to avoid regulations by maintaining local DNA databases.Sometimes, investigators turn to familial searching searching offender databases with wider parameters to identify people who are likely to be close relatives of the person who may have committed a crime. Its even worse when you consider that some of the DNA is collected in questionable circumstances and stored for who knows how longmaybe permanently?

On the other hand, some people pay to turn in their DNA to sites willing to help trace their ancestors. The cops can just turn to those sites to request the DNA information. As Wired warned, Your relatives DNA could turn you into a suspect.

Ms. Smith (not her real name) is a freelance writer and programmer with a special and somewhat personal interest in IT privacy and security issues.

Sponsored Links

Go here to see the original:
Should police departments be able to have their own DNA databases? - Network World

Data storage technologies are having a hard time keeping up, as data in the world is doubling every two years, according to a 2014 estimate by EMC. As a result, researchers are looking at various methods to store data as a possible storage medium.

Recently, researchers Yaniv Erlich and Dina Zielinski of the Data Science Institute at Columbia University and the New York Genome Center (NYGC) unveiled a new technique that allows DNA to store more data than ever before. In nature, DNA works by storing information about different forms of life and its characteristics using four base nucleotides: A, G, C and T. DNA has been studied for a while as a possible solution for storing human-generated data.

In essence, DNA works just like your hard drive, but instead of binary ones and zeros to store digital data, it uses a quaternary base to store information about a living organisms genes. DNA is an ideal storage medium because it is ultra-compact and can last hundreds of thousands of years if kept in a cool, dry place, as demonstrated by the recent recovery of DNA from the bones of a 430,000-year-old human ancestor found in a cave in Spain.

DNA wont degrade over time like cassette tapes and CDs, and it wont become obsolete if it does, we have bigger problems, said Yaniv Erlich from Columbia University.

The researchers showed how an algorithm designed for streaming video on a cellphone can unlock DNAs nearly full storage potential by squeezing more information into its four base nucleotides. During their experiment, researchers said they successfully stored six files inside DNA molecules a full computer operating system (KolibriOS), a 1895 French film Arrival of a train at La Ciotat, a $50 Amazon gift card, a computer virus, a Pioneer plaque, and a 1948 study by information theorist Claude Shannoninto 72,000 DNA strands, each 200 bases long.

After this, they retrieved the data using DNA sequencing technology and then a software to translate the code back into binary form so that it becomes readable again. The files were recovered with no errors.

To retrieve the information, we sequenced the molecules. This is the basic process, Erlich said.

Erlich explained how DNA is a better option than the current ones we already have. DNA has several advantages to store information, he said. The first thing is that its very compact. In effect, its about one million times more compact than what you can get when you use a regular digital media.

The storage capacity is massive; it can reach a density of 215 Petabytes per gram of DNA and can last a very long period of time, which can be over a 100 years.

We believe this is the highest-density data storage device ever created, said Erlich.

The main barrier at the moment of bringing this into commercialisation is time and money, as it takes about two weeks to synthesize the DNA sequence, while it costs $7,000 to sequence 2MB of data into DNA, and then another $2,000 to read it.

Despite this, the research team is very optimistic. When questioned how long it would take for this technology to be made available to everyone, Erlich replied that, I would guess more than a decade. We are still in early days, but it also took magnetic media years of research and development before it became useful.

The research has been published in the journal Science.

Excerpt from:
DNA: Is it the hard drive of the future? - Techworm

March 6, 2017 Credit: University of New Mexico

A young company developing technology created at the University of New Mexico (UNM) is on a mission to disrupt the landscape of DNA sequencing.

Armonica Technologies, LLC, is developing a DNA sequencing platform that will sequence a complete human genome in minutes. The company's goal is to make the technology the gold standard for DNA sequencing for precision medicine research applications. Armonica has optioned a portfolio of patented and patent pending technologies from STC.UNM. The technology is called "optical nanopore sequencing" and uses nanochannels to deliver single DNA molecules through nanopores. Nanopores are very small holes with an internal diameter of 1 nanometer (one billionth of a meter). The nanopores slow down DNA translocation enough to produce massively parallel, single-base resolution using optical techniques.

Here's how nanopore sequencing works: when a nanopore is immersed in conducting fluid, voltage can be applied to produce an electric current. The current is sensitive to the size and shape of the nanopore so that if a DNA strand passes through or near the nanopore, the amount of current changes. The change in the current as the DNA molecule passes through the nanopore represents a reading of the DNA sequence.

"There is an unmet need in the fast-growing DNA sequencing market," said Armonica President & CEO Scott Goldman. "Today's standard genome sequencing approach requires extensive library preparation and creates a massive computational and bioinformatics problem related to reassembling the data set. Armonica will resolve these problems by introducing a sequencing instrument that will not require library preparation and will generate reads of up to 50,000 bases, combined with a parallelism of 1 million. This approach will net 50 billion basesmore than sufficient to sequence the entire human genome in minutes."

The innovative nanopore technology was developed by Distinguished Professor Emeritus Steve Brueck, Research Assistant Professor Yuliya Kuznetsova, and Postdoctoral Fellow Alexander Neumann from UNM's Center for High Technology Materials (CHTM) and Professor Jeremy Edwards from UNM's Department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology, in collaboration with Redondo Optics CEO Edgar Mendoza.

"Nanopore sequencing analyzes long DNA strings, with long reads that provide more accurate identification of genome variations," said Brueck. "It is an approach, therefore, that leads to a more thorough, faster, and accurate genomic analysis, allowing researchers to substantially improve the ability to make new discoveries. One of the challenges of nanopore sequencing is to improve the resolution to be able to detect single nucleotides (bases)."

"We believe our nanochannel technology will disrupt the industry because it produces very long reads for higher accuracy, very high parallelism using optical techniques, and high throughput rates for greater processing speed. It will be an affordable tool for researchers," said STC CEO Lisa Kuuttila. "This technology portfolio represents a leap in genomic sequencing technology that could be a huge benefit for the DNA sequencing industry, which is experiencing explosive growth. The company's research and development are currently being done at UNM's CHTM, a research center with a global reputation for inventing disruptive nanoscale technologies and providing outstanding scientific expertise and technical support. We are very excited about the technology's potential and believe in the company's vision."

Explore further: The gene sequencing that everyone can afford in future

DNA sequencing is important to science. While Professor Qian Linmao and his group from Tribology Research Institute, Southwest Jiaotong University, were working on the optimization of the third-generation sequencing technique ...

(Phys.org) U.K. based Oxford Nanopore Technologies has made good on a promise made two years ago to produce an inexpensive genome sequencer that is based on nanopore technology. David Jaffe, with the Broad Institute reported ...

Research published this week in Nature Nanotechnology shows a new method of enzyme-controlled movement of a single strand of DNA through a protein nanopore. The paper, by researchers at the University of California Santa ...

(Phys.org) High-speed reading of the genetic code should get a boost with the creation of the world's first graphene nanopores pores measuring approximately 2 nanometers in diameter that feature a "built-in" optical ...

Scientists at The University of Nottingham have demonstrated for the first time that it is possible to selectively sequence fragments of DNA in real time, greatly reducing the time needed to analyse biological samples.

In a future of personalized medicine, doctors may quickly glean the changes in the DNA sequences of patients that predispose them to specific diseases or determine the most appropriate therapeutic approach simply by analyzing ...

A small team of researchers with members from the University of California and the University of Michigan has found that some personality traits unique to a queen wasp are passed down to her offspring, the worker wasps. In ...

A new computational method can improve the accuracy of gene expression analyses, which are increasingly used to diagnose and monitor cancers and are a major tool for basic biological research.

Three species and three genera of birdeater spiders are described as new to science in a paper recently published in the open access journal ZooKeys. In their study, the Brazilian spider experts, Drs. Caroline Fukushima and ...

One of the unique and most iconic features of many modern turtles is that they can withdraw their neck and head to hide and protect them within their shells. The group name of species which do this, Cryptodira, even means ...

The scientists who uncovered why zebras have black and white stripes (to repel biting flies), took the coloration question to giant pandas in a study published this week in the journal Behavioral Ecology.

Research by the University of Southampton has found that methods used to predict the effect of species extinction on ecosystems could be producing inaccurate results. This is because current thinking assumes that when a species ...

Please sign in to add a comment. Registration is free, and takes less than a minute. Read more

Continue reading here:
Pushing the boundaries of DNA sequencing - Phys.Org

March 6, 2017 Geographic distribution of biosamples and organisms encompassed by the Genomes OnLine Database. The location where the organism was isolated is marked with pink dots; the location of the biosample is marked with blue dots. Credit: US Department of Energy

There are more microbes in, on, and around the planet than there are stars in the Milky Way. Microbes affect food production; air quality; natural breakdown of plants, trees and biomass; soil quality for agriculture; and much more. To work with these microbes, scientists need to learn more about how microbes and viruses interact. Viruses influence microbes' abilities to work. Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute built the largest publicly available database for viruses. This single effort increases the number of known viral genes by a factor of 16. Further, in a series of four articles published in Nucleic Acids Research, DOE Joint Genome Institute researchers report on the latest updates to several other publicly accessible databases and computational tools. These databases and tools will benefit the global community of microbial researchers.

Microbes play key roles in the planet's biogeochemical cycles. Viruses, thought to outnumber microbes by 10 fold, can alter those cycles. Advances in sequencing technologies have generated vast amounts of data about the viruses. Working with the data requires tools to manage and interpret it. The updated database analytical tools offer details on microbes, specifically microbial genomics, and viruses. A new database, available to the public, enables analyses that can help scientists answer questions about the viruses that infect microbes, an interaction that affects countless natural processes and may provide tools for speeding up beneficial (or slowing down harmful) microbial actions. The insights gained from this work are relevant to DOE missions in bioenergy and environment.

Providing high-quality, publicly accessible sequence data goes hand-in-hand with developing and maintaining the databases and tools that the research community can harness to help answer scientific questions. In a recent series of articles published in Nucleic Acids Research, researchers at DOE's Joint Genome Institute, a national scientific user facility, describe a database called Integrated Microbial Genomes with Virus Samples (IMG/VR). IMG/VR is a comprehensive computational platform integrating all the sequences in the database with associated metadata and analytical tools.

IMG/VR follows on the heels of a recent DOE Joint Genome Institute viral diversity report in Nature. Additional articles in the same issue describe updates to several publicly accessible, interactive databases since the last set of reports published in 2014. For example, as of July 2016, there were 47,516 archaeal, bacterial, and eukaryotic genomes in the IMG with Microbiome Samples (IMG/M) system, with researchers noting that number "represents an over 300% increase since September 2013." IMG/M contains annotated DNA and RNA sequence data of archaeal, bacterial, eukaryotic, and viral genomes from cultured organisms; single cell genomes (SCG) and genomes from metagenomes from uncultured archaea, bacteria, and viruses; and metagenomes from environmental, host-associated, and engineered microbiome samples.

Another paper concerns the Genomes OnLine Database (GOLD), a manually curated data management system that catalogs sequencing projects with associated metadata from around the world. In the current version of GOLD (v.6), all projects are organized based on a four-level classification system in the form of a study, organism (for isolates) or biosample (for environmental samples), sequencing project, and analysis project. A fourth paper focuses on the IMG Atlas of Biosynthetic gene Clusters (IMG-ABC). Launched in 2015, IMG-ABC enables researchers to search for biosynthetic gene clusters and secondary metabolites. Their latest update now incorporates ClusterScout, a tool for targeted identification of custom biosynthetic gene clusters across several thousand isolate microbial genomes, as well as a new search capability.

Explore further: Database of DNA viruses and retroviruses debuts on IMG platform

More information: I-Min A. Chen et al. IMG/M: integrated genome and metagenome comparative data analysis system, Nucleic Acids Research (2017). DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkw929

Supratim Mukherjee et al. Genomes OnLine Database (GOLD) v.6: data updates and feature enhancements, Nucleic Acids Research (2017). DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkw992

David Paez-Espino et al. IMG/VR: a database of cultured and uncultured DNA Viruses and retroviruses, Nucleic Acids Research (2017). DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkw1030

In a series of four articles published in the Database issue of the Nucleic Acids Research journal, DOE JGI researchers report on the latest updates to several publicly accessible databases and computational tools that benefit ...

The number of microbes in, on, and around the planet - on the order of a nonillion, or 1030 - is estimated to outnumber the stars in the Milky Way. Microbes are known to play crucial roles in regulating carbon fixation, as ...

The wealth of genomic and metagenomic datasets for microbes, particularly from previously unstudied environments, within the Integrated Microbial Genomes (IMG) system is being applied in a new public database to the search ...

Researchers sequenced 230 diverse archaeal and bacterial genomes to learn more about the roles DNA methylation plays in prokaryotes.

Using a specially designed computational tool as a lure, scientists have netted the genomic sequences of almost 12,500 previously uncharacterized viruses from public databases.

DOE JGI researchers have developed an automated tool called MetaBAT that automatically groups large genomic fragments assembled from metagenome sequences to reconstruct single microbial genomes.

A small team of researchers with members from the University of California and the University of Michigan has found that some personality traits unique to a queen wasp are passed down to her offspring, the worker wasps. In ...

A new computational method can improve the accuracy of gene expression analyses, which are increasingly used to diagnose and monitor cancers and are a major tool for basic biological research.

Three species and three genera of birdeater spiders are described as new to science in a paper recently published in the open access journal ZooKeys. In their study, the Brazilian spider experts, Drs. Caroline Fukushima and ...

One of the unique and most iconic features of many modern turtles is that they can withdraw their neck and head to hide and protect them within their shells. The group name of species which do this, Cryptodira, even means ...

The scientists who uncovered why zebras have black and white stripes (to repel biting flies), took the coloration question to giant pandas in a study published this week in the journal Behavioral Ecology.

Research by the University of Southampton has found that methods used to predict the effect of species extinction on ecosystems could be producing inaccurate results. This is because current thinking assumes that when a species ...

Please sign in to add a comment. Registration is free, and takes less than a minute. Read more

Link:
New database of DNA viruses and retroviruses debuts - Phys.Org

The Park Slope Garage Condominium at 845 Union St., where a parking spot is on the market for $300,000. View Full Caption

DNAinfo/Leslie Albrecht

PARK SLOPE The hottest real estate in Brooklyn may be a closet-sized slab of concrete on Union Street.

A parking spot at the 845 Union St. parking garage is on the market for $300,000.

Like other condo properties, whoever buys the parking spot will have to pay monthly charges. In this case it's $240 in monthly maintenance fees, plus an extra$51 in monthly taxes.

But the monthly charges could be worth it if you sell the spot for a tidy profit in a few years. Just four years ago a spot in the same garage sold for a then eye-popping $80,000.

"Even though youre not going to be saving money monthly, its an asset thats increasing in value," said Constantine Valhouli, co-founder of the real estate analytics firm NeighborhoodX.

Parking garages are more in demand than ever as many have been converted to other uses, he said.

Valhouli likened the six-figure price tag for a parking spot to Brooklyn's rising real estate fortunes. The borough was once simply an affordable alternative to Manhattan but now attracts buyers seeking luxury housing.

"It shows how the market is maturing, where people are willing to pay an amount tagged to luxury and convenience rather than to yield," Valhouli said.

The $300,000 price tag is comparable to the asking prices for one-bedroom apartments for people, not vehicles in Rego Park, Spuyten Duyvil or Gravesend, according to a quick perusal of StreetEasy.

Garage owner Howard Pronsky of Berman Realty predicted in 2013 that prices for his parking spots would probably go up, in part because the parking garage directly across the street at 800 Union St. was being converted into condos and retail.

A 4-year-old boy was killed at the garage, which is also known by the address 841 Union St., in 2016 after falling down a 50-foot elevator shaft.

RELATED: Free Park Slope Parking up For Grabs in Lottery at Methodist Hospital

See more here:
$300000 Parking Space Could Be Yours in Park Slope - DNAinfo

KOKOMO -- Barbara Trice hit a wall.

It was the wall of 1860, as she calls it, because she was unable to uncover historical information on her family prior to that year.

I started asking questions and I wrote some things down and I remembered some things as a teenager, Trice said of her research that has spanned years.

As a teenager living with her grandparents, she developed an interest in her ancestry. But it wasnt until five years ago that she decided to really take steps toward uncovering her past.

And it wasnt until June of 2016 the Kokomo-Howard County Public Library was able to assist Trice with her research.

Barbara had a lot of information and I used what she had to start because she knew her family and I didnt, said Amy Russell, head of the librarys Genealogy & Local History Department. And by taking the names that she had, we just took off and ran with it and did the research.

Russell was able to go back six generations in Trices familial history with research and uncovering census data. All of that information was presented Friday evening at the KHCPLs Exploring Your Story, DNA and genealogy research event.

The two-day event presented the genealogical research of two Kokomo residents, Trice and WWKI radio personality Tammy Lively.

For the last nine months, researchers at the library have been uncovering stories from the two womens past. The big reveal Friday showed the women a deeper look into their history, primarily focusing on their paternal sides.

DNA tests that they had taken months prior were also reveled to show their ethnic makeup and origins.

Each woman took two different DNA tests, while Trice took an additional test that was more advanced because of her African heritage.

Because slaves were property, and because they were property they werent recorded, Russell said about Trices need to take a more advanced DNA test.

For African Americans with slave ancestry, it is more difficult to locate documentation that traces a person back to their roots, which is why Trice hit a figurative wall in her own research.

Their names werent recorded, Russell said. With a white family the names keep going on and on, with an African American family at some point, it stops.

But Russell was able to uncover that Trices great-great-great grandfather on her mothers side, Ceasar Wilkerson, was a slave born in 1825 in Virginia. Research also showed that Wilkerson probably served in the U.S. colored troupes in the Civil War.

Like Trice, Lively had also been gathering information on her ancestry for years.

Her mother and grandmother would visit Indianapolis to do research, Lively recalls, resulting in a box full of information she was able to present to researchers.

I had a lot of information for them to start with, but I had barely any information about my fathers side of the family, Lively said.

She imagined that she could be related to royalty, and developed a fascination with the idea.

Ive always been fascinated by all things royal, Lively said. My husband teases me, and the big joke in country radio is [that] Im the queen of my double wide trailer.

But after revealing that her ancestry does in fact include the lineage of England Aristocrats, her jokes can now be backed by facts.

Ive always been fascinated with it, but I never ever dreamed that there was any connection, Lively said in awe following Fridays big reveal.

Research shows that on Livelys fathers side there are connections linking the family to King Henry VIII, who had many wives. From that lineage, a connection to Elizabeth I of England, daughter of Anne Boleyn, the second wife of King Henry VII, is made.

Discovering that she is a distant cousin to Elizabeth I of England left Lively awestruck. Not to mention, uncovering that somewhere down the line Vice President Dick Cheney is also related to Elizabeth I of England, making Lively and Cheney distantly related as well, proved to be the most surprising outcome of the night, Lively admitted.

I feel really compelled to just learn more and more about all the rest of my family, not just the fascinating things I found out about my fathers side today, but my mothers side, Lively said. Its just like an adventure now.

Both Lively and Trice also had their DNA results revealed by genealogy expert Michael Lacopo.

Lively learned she was 27 percent Irish, and also a bit Scandinavian. It was revealed that Trice was 37 percent Ghanaian, also with a sprinkle of Scandinavia.

But that breakdown should not be taken at face value, Lacopo explains, since there are still improvements to be made with ethnic DNA tests.

I always tell people, Ethnic breakdowns are dinner conversation, he said. Theyre interesting, they hold some truth, but they re not hard science.

Because ethnic DNA testing from Ancestry.com, 23andme and a rising number of genomics and biotechnology companies only test from a small database of DNA, its hard to accurately link people to a specific ethnic makeup that would be completely accurate.

The database for Ancestry.com only tests against 3000 people, Lacopo said, and thats not including the DNA of people who lived over 200 years ago.

So theres always going to be fault in those ethnic calculators, Lacopo said.

Going forward, he expects better developments in science. As more people continue to test their biological makeup, databases will increase allowing for more accurate matches, he added.

But the first step in uncovering your history isnt collecting a DNA sample or even searching online. Its talking to the eldest members of your family and collecting all of the historical data you can.

People are not renewable resources, Lacopo said. When they go, theyre gone. So ask lots of questions. Dig through their attics, find all the good stuff.

He added, Its like mining all of the information out of their heads. Heads first, computers second.

And now that Trice and Lively have both experienced how DNA and some research can uncover years of untold stories, they both hope to continue their research because the history never quite ends.

I am so elated, Trice said. I went through an up and a down through the period of time that they were looking because I know how hard it is to break the wall of 1860. But I had decided no matter how little they found or how much they found, that I would be happy with that.

For Lively, this is just the start of her adventure. She hopes others attempt to embark on the same journey.

We should know who we are, she said. It doesnt change my life in any tangible way, but its those wonderful stories that I can pass on to my own granddaughter now. I want her to know her family history.

Correction: An earlier edit identified King Henry VII as having many wives. It has been corrected to King Henry VIII.

Follow this link:
Research and DNA tests uncovers the unanswered questions of two Kokomo residents - Kokomo Tribune