They are the most common repeated elements in the human genome; more than a million copies are scattered among and between our genes. Called Alu elements, these relatively short (approximately 300 ...

Miriam K. Konkel is in the Department of Genetics and Biochemistry, Clemson Center for Human Genetics, Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina 29634, USA. Read the paper: On the genetic basis of ...

Much of human DNA is the genetic equivalent of e-mail spam: short repeated sequences that have no obvious function other than making more of themselves. After starting out in our primate ancestors 65 ...

ヒトと類人猿は、他の霊長類と異なり尾を持たない。新たな遺伝学研究で、尾の発生に重要な遺伝子への短いDNA配列の挿入が、ヒトの祖先における尾の喪失につながった可能性が示された。 尾は動物界に広く見られる特徴であり、全ての哺乳類は胚発生の ...

At some point in the past, humans and other apes lost their tails. Research recently published in Nature proposes a mechanism to explain how. We still have many of the necessary genes, but a single ...