T
he wooly mammoth (
Mammuthus primigenius) is an iconic animal, like the saber tooth tiger or dire wolf, from a time in human history when our position at the top of the global food chain was decidedly not assured (and being something s prey was not limited to just other humans). Perhaps this is a reason that resurrection of mammoths using Jurassic Park-like technology has some currency and appeal (
but see
How to Clone a Mammoth for reasons why this may not be such a good idea). Perhaps paradoxically, the mammoth arose in Africa 5 million years ago and like its (very) distant
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IMAGE: The mitoribosome is attached to its membrane adaptor as it synthesises a bioenergetic protein (glow yellow). view more
Credit: Dan W. Nowakowski and Alexey Amunts
Scientists uncover for the first time how the body s energy makers are made using Cryo-Electron Microscopy (cryo-EM) at eBIC within Diamond which is based in Oxfordshire.
A new paper published in
Science today (19 February 2021) by an international team of researchers reports an insight into the molecular mechanism of membrane-tethered protein synthesis in mitochondria. This is a fundamental new understanding of how the human mitoribosome functions and could explain how it is affected by mutations and deregulation that lead to disorders such as deafness and diseases including cancer development.
Scientists have successfully identified, extracted and analysed the oldest ever DNA from an animal which was not frozen and preserved in permafrost.
The 360,000-year-old genetic material came from the bone of a cave bear, the larger and vegetarian relative of polar and brown bears, which died in what is now Georgia during the Middle Pleistocene.
Analysis of its DNA reveals cave bears evolved 1.5 million years ago from the same common ancestor as brown and polar bears, as well as other now-extinct species.
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After cave bears split and formed their own lineage 1.5million years ago, a descendent of the unknown ancestor split into two species polar bears and brown bears half a million years later. This is also the time when the three major cave bear clades started to appear, indicating a wide-reaching event was forcing the animals to adapt and evolve
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