genomes

Mostly hidden from the scrutiny of the naked eye, microbes have been said to run the world. The challenge is how best to characterize them given that less than one percent of the estimated hundreds of millions of microbial species can be cultured in the laboratory.

The answer is metagenomics -- an increasingly popular approach for extracting the genomes of uncultured microorganisms and discerning their specific metabolic capabilities directly from environmental samples.

As DNA sequencing becomes cheaper, it will become common for people to have their complete genomes sequenced.

Personal genomes will not only tell people about genetic susceptibility to cancer and heart disease, but will also tell them which vitamins and how much can improve their health.

A new study shows that one enzyme can be tuned up with vitamins, suggesting that one day we all may take personalized vitamin supplements.

Over 600 complete mtDNA genomes from indigenous populations across the continent were analyzed and the data provided surprising insights into the early demographic history of human populations before they moved out of Africa.

The extensive data analysis revealed that early human populations were small and isolated from each other for many tens of thousands of years.

Recent research at Yale provided a glimpse of the ancient mechanism that helped diversify our genomes; it illuminated a relationship between gene processing in humans and the most primitive organisms by creating the first crystal structure of a crucial self-splicing region of RNA.

Cancer researchers have found that humans and dogs share more than friendship and companionship -- they also share the same genetic basis for certain types of cancer.

Furthermore, the researchers say that because of the way the genomes have evolved, getting cancer may be inevitable for some humans and dogs.