Researchers at the University of Bonn have identified a previously unknown genetic program in the fruit fly. The genetic material involved controls the development of the neurons while also protecting them from degeneration.
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COVID-19 is only the latest infectious disease to have had an outsized impact on human life. A new study employing ancient human DNA reveals how tuberculosis has affected European populations over the past 2,000 years, specifically the impact that disease has had on the human genome. This work, which publishes March 4 in the
American Journal of Human Genetics, has implications for studying not only evolutionary genetics, but also how genetics can influence the immune system. Present-day humans are the descendants of those who have survived many things climate changes and big epidemics, including the Black Death, Spanish flu, and tuberculosis, says senior author Lluis Quintana-Murci of the Institut Pasteur in France. This work uses population genetics to dissect how natural selection has acted on our genomes.