This week in Molecular Biology and Evolution

Out of Eurasia, a great primate evolutionary bottleneck?

2013-10-15

(Press-News.org) On the road to our modern human lineage, scientists speculate there were many twist and turns, evolutionary dead ends, and population bottlenecks along the way. But how large were population sizes of common ancestors of the great apes and humans, and does the genetic analysis support the prevailing views of a great bottleneck in primate evolution?

Using inferred evolutionary rates of more than 1400 genes and ancestral generation times, Professor Carlos Schrago and colleagues trace population histories backwards across evolutionary time to estimate population sizes for common ancestors. Their results show that the population sizes of lineages leading to human and chimpanzees dramatically shrunk over evolutionary time, from approximately 1,200,000 in number to 30,000.

This population reduction coincides with bio-geographical data that suggests a great ape ancestral migration event from Eurasia to Africa during the late Miocene period, from approximately 12 to 5.5 million years ago, with a five-fold reduction in effective population size between the ancestor of the Eurasian and African great apes and the ancestor of African great apes alone, suggesting that the Homininae diversified after a dispersal event from an Eurasian ancestor.

### The article appears in the advanced online edition of Molecular Biology and Evolution.

http://mbe.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2013/10/11/molbev.mst191.abstract

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New evidence on lightning strikes: Mountains a lot less stable than we think

2013-10-15

Lightning strikes causing rocks to explode have for the first time been shown to play a huge role in shaping mountain landscapes in southern Africa, debunking previous assumptions that angular rock formations were necessarily caused by cold temperatures, and proving that mountains are a lot less stable than we think. In a world where mountains are crucial to food security and water supply, this has vast implications, especially in the context of climate change. Professors Jasper Knight and Stefan Grab from the School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies ...

Recovery from childhood ADHD may depend on the pattern of brain development

2013-10-15

Philadelphia, PA, October 15, 2013 – Some people grow out of their childhood attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and some don't. In fact, around 50% of individuals diagnosed as children continue to suffer from ADHD as adults. Researchers are trying to understand the reasons why, and relatedly, whether there are any differences that distinguish the two groups. Gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic class, and symptom severity have already been ruled out as potentials. So, perhaps there is a distinguishing variable in the brain? Dr. Philip Shaw at the National Human ...

Halloween candy spooks aging digestive systems! Research in fruit flies helps explain why

2013-10-15

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UT Southwestern reports promising new approach to drug-resistant infections

2013-10-15

DALLAS – Oct. 15, 2013 – A new type of antibiotic called a PPMO, which works by blocking genes essential for bacterial reproduction, successfully killed a multidrug-resistant germ common to health care settings, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers report. The technology and new approach offer potential promise against the growing problem of antibiotic resistance, the researchers said. The pathogen (germ) – called Acinetobacter – can cause infections from pneumonia to serious blood or wound infections, posing greater risk to people with weakened immune systems, ...

New 3-D method used to grow miniature pancreas

2013-10-15

An international team of researchers from the University of Copenhagen have successfully developed an innovative 3D method to grow miniature pancreas from progenitor cells. The future goal is to use this model to help in the fight against diabetes. The research results has just been published in the scientific journal Development. Professor Anne Grapin-Botton and her team at the Danish Stem Cell Centre have developed a three-dimensional culture method which enables the efficient expansion of pancreatic cells. The new method allows the cell material from mice to grow ...

The musical ages of modern man: How our taste in music changes over a lifetime

2013-10-15

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Method of recording brain activity could lead to mind-reading devices, Stanford scientists say

2013-10-15

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Rice scientists create a super antioxidant

2013-10-15

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How Earth's rotation affects vortices in nature

2013-10-15

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Inhibition of cyclooxygenase-2 upregulates the nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 signaling pathway to mitigate hepatocyte ferroptosis in chronic liver injury

This week in Molecular Biology and Evolution

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