Category Archives: Gene Nomenclature

the HGNC NewsLetter Autumn/Winter 2017

Posted on December 6, 2017 by DWN

Some of you will be interested in the HGNC NewsLetter Autumn/Winter 2017 update [pasted below]. I’ve had the privilege of being coauthors with Tsviya Olender (who was in the lab of Doron Lancet at the time; at the Weizmann Institute … Continue reading →

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Analysis of 264 complete genomes from 12 E coli populations … in a 50,000-generation experiment

Posted on August 26, 2016 by DWN

Anyone who thinks that ‘evolution is not going on, around us, all the time’ … needs to revise his/her thinking. The Lenski lab in 1988 (at Michigan State) began a carefully-controlled experiment with bacteria (E. coli) growing on a defined … Continue reading →

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Regular consumption of the artificial calorie-free sweetener sucralose causes animals to overeat

Posted on July 31, 2016 by DWN

There are anecdotal stories from friends and relatives about diet sweeteners causing weight gain (from overeating) and also mental depression. Now comes a recent study involving some data about overeating caused by sucralose. “Non-nutritive” sweeteners such as sucralose are consumed … Continue reading →

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What Is the Tree of Life? And what does that mean?

Posted on April 15, 2016 by DWN

A universal Tree of Life (TOL) has long been a goal of molecular phylogeneticists. However, reticulation (i.e. a pattern resembling a net, instead of a “tree” with a single root) at the level of genes––and possibly at the levels of … Continue reading →

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Evidence now for at least five admixture breedings among Neanderthal, Denisovian and Modern human lineages

Posted on April 10, 2016 by DWN

It has been established for several years that small portions of the European and Asian genomes are derived from Neaderthals, a subline that was “not successful” and therefore “died out” at least 28,000 years ago. This most recent report [attached] … Continue reading →

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How are new species formed? And when do we call a new subline a “new species”?

Posted on April 8, 2016 by DWN

How are new species formed? And when do we call a newly diverged subline a “new species”? Clearly, the environment strongly influences selection and promotion of certain genes and allelic forms over others. Concepts and definitions of species have been … Continue reading →

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Inferring Population-Size History from Large Samples of Genome-Wide Molecular Data: An Approximate Bayesian Computation Approach

Posted on March 20, 2016 by DWN

Molecular data sampled from present-day surviving individuals can contain considerable information about their demographic history. In particular, one classical question in population genetics is to reconstruct past population-size changes from such data. Relating these changes to various climatic, geological, or … Continue reading →

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Genes having mono-allelic expression contribute disproportionately to genetic diversity in humans

Posted on March 15, 2016 by DWN

An unexpectedly large number of human autosomal genes are subject to mono-allelic expression (MAE). In the attached report, analysis of 4,227 “MAE genes” uncovers surprisingly high genetic variation––across human populations. This increased diversity is unlikely to reflect relaxed purifying selection … Continue reading →

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Ancient gene flow from early modern humans into Eastern Neanderthals

Posted on March 15, 2016 by DWN

Our understanding of The Great Human Diaspora continues to become increasingly complex..!! First, it was presumed that Homo neaderthalensis, a subline splitting off from Homo sapiens following migration of early humans Out of Africa, did not interbreed with modern humans, … Continue reading →

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Disruption of putative noncoding regulatory DNA … associated with autism in affected families

Posted on January 16, 2016 by DWN

Simplex autism (a subset of the disorder that has been greatly expanded and recently named the “autism spectrum disorder”, ASD) is a multifactorial trait––not that different from many human complex diseases, as well as such phenotypes as drug efficacy and … Continue reading →

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