Comparing the DNA of modern and ancient humans can show us similarities and differences in our basic biology, said Webb Miller, professor of biology and computer science. It can tell us which prehistoric populations died out completely, and which contributed genes to modern humans. It can even be used to reconstruct the appearance of ancient humans. (more)
A rare, ancient polar bear fossil discovered in Norway in 2004 is yielding a treasure trove of essential information about the age and evolutionary origins of the species. A paper published in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by researchers at Penn State, the University at Buffalo, the University of Oslo and other institutions is filling in key pieces of the evolutionary history of polar bears and brown bears, including their response to past climate changes. (more)
Human genomes from Southern African Bushmen and a Bantu individual, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, have been sequenced by a team of scientists seeking a greater understanding of human genetic variation and its effect on human health. The team is led by Stephan Schuster at Penn State University in the United States and Vanessa Hayes at the University of New South Wales in Australia. Human genomics is a powerful and rapidly emerging medical resource. The scientists say they need to learn the full range of human genetic variation in order to learn how genes affect health, and that Southern Africa is the place to look. (more)
Stephan Schuster and Webb Miller opened new frontiers in molecular biology when they successfully sequenced the woolly mammoth genome last year. "This is really the first time that we have been able to study an extinct animal in the same detail as the ones living in our own time," explains Schuster, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology. The approach they developed may help explain past extinction events--and prevent future ones. (more)
Penn State professors Stephan Schuster and Webb Miller have been named among "The World's Most Influential People" by TIME Magazine. The May 11 issue of the magazine describes the "TIME 100" winners and their accomplishments. Schuster, a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, and Miller, a professor of biology and of computer science and engineering, are leaders of a team that is the first to report the genome-wide sequence of an extinct animal, the woolly mammoth. They developed a novel approach for gene studies that reads ancient DNA highly efficiently. They also were the first to achieve the successful sequencing of genes from the extinct Tasmanian tiger. Their research has opened the door to the widespread, nondestructive use of museum specimens to learn why mammals become extinct and how extinctions might be prevented. (more)
Time Magazine soon will publish its 2009 list of the world's "Top 100 Most Influential" people, and the Penn State science team of Stephan Schuster and Webb Miller is in the running. Time has set up a Web site so that everyone can vote to select the top 100 winners out of the 200 finalists. Penn State fans can vote for the Penn State team at http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/0,28757,1883644,00.html online. (more)
All the genes that the exotic Tasmanian Tiger inherited only from its mother will be revealed by an international team of scientists in a research paper published today (Jan. 13) in the online edition of Genome Research. The research marks the first successful sequencing of genes from this carnivorous marsupial, which looked like a large tiger-striped dog and became extinct in 1936. The research also opens the door to the widespread, nondestructive use of museum specimens to learn why mammals become extinct and how extinctions might be prevented. "Our goal is to learn how to prevent endangered species from going extinct," said Webb Miller, a Penn State professor of biology and of computer science and engineering and a member of the research team that includes scientists from the United States, Sweden, Spain, Denmark, the United Kingdom and Germany. "I want to learn as much as I can about why large mammals become extinct because all my friends are large mammals," Miller said. "However, I am expecting that publication of this paper also will reinvigorate discussions about possibly bringing the extinct Tasmanian Tiger back to life." (more)
Scientists at Penn State are leaders of a team that is the first to report the genome-wide sequence of an extinct animal, according to Webb Miller, professor of biology and of computer science and engineering and one of the project's two leaders. The scientists sequenced the genome of the woolly mammoth, an extinct species of elephant that was adapted to living in the cold environment of the northern hemisphere. They sequenced 4 billion DNA bases using next-generation DNA-sequencing instruments and a novel approach that reads ancient DNA highly efficiently. More information about this project is on the Web at http://rw.mammoth.psu.edu/. (more)
A large genetic study of the extinct woolly mammoth has revealed that the species was not one large homogenous group, as scientists previously had assumed, and that it did not have much genetic diversity. "The population was split into two groups, then one of the groups died out 45,000 years ago, long before the first humans began to appear in the region," said Stephan C. Schuster, associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Penn State and a leader of the research team. "This discovery is particularly interesting because it rules out human hunting as a contributing factor, leaving climate change and disease as the most probable causes of extinction." The discovery will be published later this week in the early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). (more)
