Category Archives: Genome

The skeleton of King Richard III was found at an excavation site in Leicester.

The genetic code of King Richard III, the medieval English monarch whose body was found buried under a parking lot in Leicester, is set to be sequenced.

Researchers at the University of Leicester announced the project on Tuesday. The goal, they said, is to catalog as complete a genome as possible from the king to learn more about his ancestry and health.

"Sequencing the genome of Richard III is a hugely important project that will help to teach us not only about him, but ferment discussion about how our DNA informs our sense of identity, our past and our future," Turi King, a geneticist at the University of Leicester who will lead the project, said in a statement. [Photos: In Search of the Grave of Richard III]

Richard III was the last English king to die in battle. He perished in the Battle of Bosworth during the War of the Roses, a long-lasting civil war between noble families of England. After his death in August 1485, Richard's body was taken to Leicester and buried in a hasty grave; the location of the grave was then lost. In 2012, archaeologists embarked on a mission to find the king's skeleton, digging in a city council parking lot based on clues in historical documents.

In February 2013, researchers announced that they'd hit the jackpot: A skeleton with a curved spine, found stuffed in a sloppy grave, did indeed belong to Richard III. The identification took advantage of mitochondrial DNA analysis, but now the remains will get the whole-genome treatment.

This is a condensed version of a report from LiveScience. Read the full report. Follow Stephanie Pappas on Twitter and Google+. Follow LiveScience on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.

First published February 11 2014, 11:09 AM

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Scientists Will Decode King Richard III's Entire Genome

King Richard III has been dead for more than 500 years, but his bones continue to ignite fresh controversy.

The medieval king, unearthed from a Leicester parking lot in 2012, has been the center of debate over where and how his body should be reburied. Now, a plan to sequence the full genome of Richard III has brought new strife.

"Why is the University of Leicester doing this, and why is it doing it without any consultation?" said John Ashdown-Hill, an independent historian involved with the search for the bones. The DNA testing will add very little to scientific knowledge, and it breaks agreements with Buckingham Palace made before the university got involved in the Richard III search, Ashdown-Hill told LiveScience. [See Photos of the Search of King Richard III]

"We're talking about a member of the royal family and a former head of state," he said.

A lost king and controversy

Richard III died in 1485, a victim on the field at the Battle of Bosworth in the English War of the Roses. Historical records held that his battered body was taken to Leicester and buried, but the grave was lost in the early 1600s.

The search for Richard III's body was sparked by the Richard III Society, a group of historical enthusiasts who call themselves Richardians. Ashdown-Hill is part of the "Looking for Richard" team that got the ball rolling. In 2003, he started working to sequence the mitochondrial DNA, which is passed down the maternal line, of Richard III's living descendant.

Screenwriter and dedicated Richardian Philippa Langley took the lead on the archaeology, urging the Leicester City Council to allow a dig in its building's parking lot, as historical records suggested that the lot sat over the site of Greyfriars, the church where Richard III was buried. The Richard III Society funded the dig and hired University of Leicester Archaeological Services (ULAS) to do the archaeology. ULAS is an independent group of archaeologists embedded in the University of Leicester's school of archaeology and ancient history.

These players have sometimes clashed with each other as well as with outsiders. Most prominent are debates over where the king will be reburied. The University of Leicester was granted the exhumation license for the body, making it the institution responsible for the reburial. The plan is to rebury Richard III in Leicester Cathedral. That arrangement has sparked anger from some who claim relation to the king and would like to see him buried in his adopted hometown of York. Even some who accept a Leicester burial are upset with the modernistic designs for Richard III's tomb.

DNA debate

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Plan to Decode Richard III's Genome Sparks Protest From Historian

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CSHL Professor W. Richard McCombie speaks at the CSHLA Genome Education Presentation
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CSHL Professor W. Richard McCombie speaks at the CSHLA Genome Education Presentation - Video

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The human genome contains approximately 20,000 protein coding genes which are responsible for the formation, development and functioning of the human body. A similar number of genes exists in the mouse genome. In this pool only some genes -- called tumor suppressors -- can initiate the production of proteins having anti-cancer properties. Polish-Australian team of researchers from the Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw .and Monash University Central Clinical School in Melbourne showed that one of the genes, known as GRHL1, displays anti-cancer effects which is protective against skin cancer of non-melanoma type.

"In humans, we know more than 700 tumor suppressor genes, but only a few of them prevent the development of skin cancer. We have identified yet another tumor suppressor gene, whose damage certainly increases the risk of skin cancer, at least in a mouse model," says Dr. Tomasz Wilanowski from the Nencki Institute.

Cancer is currently one of the deadliest and most common diseases. According to statistical data from the World Health Organization, annually more than 8 million people die of cancer worldwide. Therefore understanding the causes of this disease and development of effective methods of prevention and therapy of cancer are of great social importance.

In 1998, Dr. Wilanowski identified, cloned and described a new human gene. GRHL1 (Grainyhead-like 1) proved to be a factor co-responsible for the formation of the largest human organ: the skin. This allowed the Polish-Australian research team to carry out experiments on the influence of this gene on the incidence of skin cancer.

"The tests that we conducted recently in our laboratory, leave no doubt. In the control mice, severe skin cancers developed in 7% of the population. In knockout mice, that is, in mice lacking the functional GRHL1 gene, such tumors appeared in as many as 33% of cases," says PhD student Michal Mlacki of the Nencki Institute, lead author of the paper that was just published in a well-known scientific journal PLOS ONE.

Researchers from the Nencki Institute emphasize that these numbers cannot be automatically applied to the human population. "Although mouse and human are very similar in terms of genetics and physiology, they are still different organisms. Mice are only research models of human disorders and facilitate better understanding of disease processes," says Michal Mlacki.

"Today we cannot yet unequivocally answer the question whether people with a defective GRHL1 gene will be five times more likely to develop non-melanoma skin cancer, as it happens in mice, or whether the risk of this disease will increase fourfold, or sixfold. Studies on the determination of the scale of the increased risk in human population have only just begun," notes Dr. Wilanowski.

Finding of a new tumor suppressor gene is the first step towards the development of tests to detect defective GRHL1 gene in children and adults. In the future, people aware of their genetic defect could take preventive measures to reduce the risk of skin cancer, for example, by avoiding tanning salons, suitably dressing on a sunny day or using creams effectively blocking ultraviolet radiation.

"Gene itself is only the vehicle of information. It is the encoded protein that is responsible for anti-cancer effect of the GRHL1 gene. Now that we know the functions of this protein, we would like to find a way to stimulate its activity in the human body. And this is the way not only to prevention, but also to future drugs that can be administered to patients," says Dr. Wilanowski.

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New tumor suppressor gene will facilitate detection of people susceptible to skin cancer

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