This is the blog for GW students taking Human Evolutionary Genetics. This site is for posting interesting tidbits on: the patterns and processes of human genetic variation;human origins and migration; molecular adaptations to environment, lifestyle and disease; ancient and forensic DNA analyses; and genealogical reconstructions.

GWHEG figure

GWHEG figure

Tuesday, February 20, 2018

You dust mite not get rid of them that easily!!


A team of researchers from the University of southern Mississippi and the university of Michigan, suggest that the dust mite, might have developed a new way to protect its genome from internal disruptions. They  sequenced the DNA and the RNA of the American house dust mite, Dermatophagoides farina and looked at the populations of small RNA molecules encoded there.
They  found that the dust mites do not have the Piwi proteins or associated RNAs that most animals have that control transposable elements. The mites have been characterized with having dramatic genetic transitions based on their transition to parasitism.


http://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1007183


Joanne

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