BOL: Related items

Genetic basis of tail-loss evolution

LEGE — Tue, 04 Mar 2025 12:12:36 -0600

The paper "On the genetic basis of tail-loss evolution in humans and apes (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07095-8)", published in Nature, investigates the genetic mechanisms that led to the loss of tails in humans and apes. The study suggests that a specific genetic mutation, involving the insertion of an Alu element (a type of transposable DNA sequence), played a critical role in the evolutionary transition from tailed primates to tailless hominoids.

Key Findings of the Study:

Alu Insertion and Tail Loss:
The researchers discovered an Alu-mediated genetic change in a common ancestor of modern apes and humans. This change disrupted the normal function of a gene involved in tail development, leading to the suppression of tail formation.
Gene Disruption Mechanism:
The Alu insertion was found within a regulatory region of the TBXT gene (also known as T or Brachyury), which is crucial for tail development in vertebrates. This insertion likely altered the gene's expression patterns, leading to tail reduction over evolutionary time.
Functional Evidence from Model Organisms:
To test their hypothesis, the researchers introduced similar genetic modifications in mice. The modified mice exhibited shortened or absent tails, supporting the idea that the identified mutation played a role in tail loss in hominoids.
Evolutionary Implications:
The findings suggest that small, random genomic changes—such as transposable element insertions—can have profound effects on body morphology. This study provides evidence that mobile DNA elements (like Alu) can drive major evolutionary transitions.
Relevance to Human Evolution:
Understanding the genetic basis of tail loss helps in reconstructing the evolutionary history of hominins (the lineage that includes humans and our extinct relatives). It also sheds light on how genetic variations contribute to anatomical diversity among primates.

Significance of the Study:

This research highlights the role of transposable elements in shaping evolutionary traits and provides a concrete genetic explanation for a defining characteristic of humans and great apes. It also demonstrates how mutations in regulatory regions of developmental genes can lead to significant anatomical changes.

EMBO practical Course on "Bioinformatics and Genomes Analyses" at Hellenic Pasteur Institute, Athens, Greece

Sat, 21 Dec 2013 10:00:24 -0600

The main objectives of this Practical Course are to strengthen skills
of PhD students and young researchers in the domain of Bioinformatics
and Genome Data Analyses on the use of advanced fundamental algorithms
and their applications in genome studies.

The course topics will include theoretical and practical aspects in:
- Genomes comparisons,
- Evolutionary analyses (orthologs, paralogs and ancestral genomes
inference),
- RNAseq and Next Generation Sequencing (including algorithms, methods
and sequence mapping tools, data analyses and applications).

The course programme will be centred on theoretical presentations
followed by practical sessions. Practical sessions in a Linux
environment will involve Unix shell and Perl scripting. Participants
are assumed to be familiar with this environment.

A series of lectures delivered by prominent scientists on recent hot
topics in genome (Viruses, Prokaryotes, Eukaryotes) studies will be
included in the programme and future research perspectives will be
highlighted.

The topics that will be included in the course programme are similar
to those included in previously organized courses:http://www.pasteur.fr/~tekaia/BGA_courses.html

The course is aimed at motivated Ph.D students and Post-Doctoral
Researchers in Academic Institutions, with background in Mathematics,
Statistics, Biology or Computer Science and who are involved in
Bioinformatics and Genomes studies.

Selection of participants will be based on their background, running
research projects and on expressed motivations.
Selected students will have free accommodation and meals and are
expected to contribute with 200 euros and to pay for their travel
expenses.
All participants (students and invited speakers) will stay in the same
hotel.

Detailed indications are available on the course web site: http://events.embo.org/14-comparative-genomics/index.html

Candidates are advised to complete carefully the application form,
together with an abstract of at least one of their running projects, a
"one-page CV" and a personal Identity Picture (Photo).

The application deadline is March 14, 2014.

The organizers:
Menelaos Manoussakis, Hellenic Pasteur Institute, Athens, Greece.
Evdokia Karagouni, Hellenic Pasteur Institute, Athens - Greece.
Evie Melanitou, Institut Pasteur Paris - France.
Fredj Tekaia ( Institut Pasteur Paris France)
URL: http://www.pasteur.fr/~tekaia/BGA_courses.html

Date: 5 – 17 May, 2014.
More at http://events.embo.org/14-comparative-genomics/index.html
will take place in the ,

Claus-Peter Stelzer Lab

Mon, 15 Mar 2021 15:24:41 -0500

Interested in various topics at the intersection of ecology and evolution. In my research I use rotifers as model organisms for experimental studies at the individual and population level. Rotifers are ideally suited for this, because populations of thousands can be kept in small containers in the lab, while single individuals can still be handled conveniently.

More at https://www.uibk.ac.at/limno/personnel/stelzer/index.html.en#research

Oldest Hominin DNA Sequenced

Surajeet — Fri, 27 Dec 2013 19:58:31 -0600

Matthias Meyer and his team from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, have developed new techniques for retrieving and sequencing highly degraded ancient DNA. They then joined forces with Juan-Luis Arsuaga and applied the new techniques to a cave bear from the Sima de los Huesos site. After this success, the researchers sampled two grams of bone powder from a hominin thigh bone from the cave. They extracted its DNA and sequenced the genome of the mitochondria or mtDNA, a small part of the genome that is passed down along the maternal line and occurs in many copies per cell. The researchers then compared this ancient mitochondrial DNA with Neandertals, Denisovans, present-day humans, and apes.

From the missing mutations in the old DNA sequences the researchers calculated that the Sima hominin lived about 400,000 years ago. They also found that it shared a common ancestor with the Denisovans, an extinct archaic group from Asia related to the Neandertals, about 700,000 years ago. "The fact that the mtDNA of the Sima de los Huesos hominin shares a common ancestor with Denisovan rather than Neandertal mtDNAs is unexpected since its skeletal remains carry Neandertal-derived features," says Matthias Meyer. Considering their age and Neandertal-like features, the Sima hominins were likely related to the population ancestral to both Neandertals and Denisovans. Another possibility is that gene flow from yet another group of hominins brought the Denisova-like mtDNA into the Sima hominins or their ancestors.

Reference

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/12/131204132018.htm

TEDMED Great Challenges: Genomics and Medicine: Where promise meets clinical practice

Fri, 22 Nov 2013 12:05:32 -0600

November 21, 2013 - NHGRI Director Eric Green, M.D., Ph.D, hosted the TEDMED Google+ Hangout to discuss genomic medicine with an all-star cast that includes Carlos Bustamante, James Evans, Amy McGuire and Sharon Terry. More: http://www.tedmed.com/greatchallenges

List of bioinformatics open source projects/software.

Rahul Nayak — Tue, 21 Jan 2014 14:28:37 -0600

Open source software is software that can be freely used, changed, and shared (in modified or unmodified form) by anyone. Open source software is made by many people, and distributed under licenses that comply with the Open Source Definition.The Open Source Initiative (OSI) is a global non-profit that supports and promotes the open source movement. Followings are the OS bioinformatics projects/software :

.NET Bio

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/msr_er/archive/2011/10/18/microsoft-biology-foundation-evolves-into-new-toolkit-net-bio.aspx

A language-neutral bioinformatics toolkit built using the Microsoft 4.0 .NET Framework to help developers, researchers, and scientists.

AMPHORA ("AutoMated Phylogenomic infeRence Application")

http://wolbachia.biology.virginia.edu/WuLab/Software.html

Metagenomics analysis software

Anduril

http://www.anduril.org/anduril/site/

Component-based workflow framework for data analysis

Armadillo workflow platform

Tool for designing and executing phylogenetic workflows

AutoDock

http://autodock.scripps.edu/

suite of automated docking tools

Biochemical Algorithms Library (BALL)

http://www.ball-project.org/

C++ library and framework for molecular modeling and visualization designed for rapid prototyping

Bio4j

http://bio4j.com/

Bio4j is a bioinformatics platform and graph based database built around most data available in UniProt KB(Swiss-Prot + TrEMBL), Gene Ontology (GO), UniRef (50,90,100), RefSeq, NCBI taxonomy, and Expasy Enzyme DB

Bioclipse

www.bioclipse.net

Visual platform for chemo- and bioinformatics based on the Eclipse Rich Client Platform (RCP).

Bioconductor

http://www.bioconductor.org/

R (programming language) language toolkit

Bioinformatics Learning Tutorial (BLT)

http://sourceforge.net/projects/biotutorial/

Educational interactive tutorials and 3D animations for Replication, Transcription, and Translation

BioHaskell

http://biohaskell.org/

Haskell (programming language)

BioJava

http://biojava.org/wiki/Main_Page

Java (programming language)

BioMOBY

http://biomoby.org/

registry of web services

BioPerl

http://www.bioperl.org/wiki/Main_Page

Perl language toolkit

BioPHP

http://www.biophp.org/

PHP language toolkit

Biopython

http://biopython.org/wiki/Main_Page

Python language toolkit

BioRails

https://github.com/biorails

a data management system designed to support researchers in drug discovery

BioRuby

http://bioruby.org/

Ruby language toolkit

BioSmalltalk

https://code.google.com/p/biosmalltalk/

Smalltalk language toolkit

BioUno

http://www.biouno.org/

BioUno is a project that applies Continuous Integration tools and techniques in Bioinformatics. It uses Jenkins and its plug-in API to create biology workflows and manage computer clusters.

caCORE

ontologic representation environment

caArray

https://cabig-stage.nci.nih.gov/community/tools/caArray

ontologic representation environment

EMBOSS

http://emboss.sourceforge.net/

Suite of packages for sequencing, searching, etc.

Gaggle

https://www.gaggle.net/

A framework for interoperability between systems biology software

Galaxy

http://galaxyproject.org/

Scientific workflow and data integration system

GenePattern

http://www.broadinstitute.org/cancer/software/genepattern/

Scientific workflow system that provides access to more than 150 genomic analysis tools

GeWorkbench

http://wiki.c2b2.columbia.edu/workbench/index.php/Home

Genomic data integration platform

GMOD

http://www.gmod.org/wiki/Main_Page

Toolkit for addressing many common challenges at biological databases.

GeneProf

http://www.geneprof.org/GeneProf/

A web-based, bioinformatics software suite for the analysis of functional genomics experiments, e.g. RNA-seq or ChIP-seq.

GeneTalk

http://www.gene-talk.de/

Tool for filtering sequence variants in VCF files. Network for scientists and clinicians for expertise and knowledge exchange. Database of annotations aboute sequence variants with clinically relevant information.

GenGIS

http://kiwi.cs.dal.ca/GenGIS/Main_Page

Application that allows users to combine digital map data with information about biological sequences collected from the environment.

GenomeSpace

http://www.genomespace.org/

Centralized web application that provides data format transformations and facilitates connections with other bioinformatics tools

GENtle

http://directory.fsf.org/wiki/GENtle

An equivalent to the proprietary Vector NTI, a tool to analyze and edit DNA sequence files

Integrated Genome Browser

http://bioviz.org/igb/

Java-based desktop genome browser

Integrative Genomics Viewer (IGV)

http://www.broadinstitute.org/igv/

High-performance desktop tool for interactive visual exploration of diverse genomic data

IntAct

http://www.ebi.ac.uk/intact/

molecular interaction database

InterMine

http://intermine.github.io/intermine.org/

Extensive data warehouse system for the analysis and integration of biological datasets

Java Treeview

http://jtreeview.sourceforge.net/

microarray data viewer

LabKey Server

http://labkey.com/

platform for integrating, analyzing and sharing data

OpenClinica

https://www.openclinica.com/

software for capturing and managing data in clinical trials

PromKappa

http://xbioinformatics.wordpress.com/tag/promkappa/

PromKappa (Promoter analysis by Kappa) software program used for promoter pattern generation and promoter analysis.

MeV: Multi-Experiment Viewer

http://www.tm4.org/mev.html

a desktop application for the analysis, visualization and data-mining of large-scale genomic data

PathVisio

http://www.pathvisio.org/

a desktop software for drawing, analysis and visualization of biological pathways

REDCRAFT

software for determining tertiary protein structure given assigned Residual Dipolar Coupling data

SAM Tools

Data format (SAM) and accompanying tool suite, for storing large nucleotide sequence alignments

Staden Package

Sequence assembly, editing and analysis, primarily consisting of gap4, gap5 and spin.

STAMP

Software package for analyzing metagenomic profiles that promotes ‘best practices’ in choosing appropriate statistical techniques and reporting results.

supraHex

An open-source R/Bioconductor package for omics data analysis using a supra-hexagonal map

Taverna workbench

Tool for designing and executing workflows

TGAC Browser

Genome Browser, visualisation solutions for big data in the genomic era

T-REX WebServer

Bioinformatics and phylogenetics webserver (NJ, PhyML, RAxML, MAFFT, MUSCLE, Newick viewer, Horizontal gene transfer detection, Reticulograms, Substitution models)

UGENE

integrated bioinformatics tools

Visomics

bioinformatics tools for omics data

Genome Analysis Toolkit 1.0 (GATK 1.0)

a software package to analyse next-generation resequencing data

MedGenome is looking for Genome Analysts

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 11:06:23 -0600

MedGenome is looking for Genome Analysts (5-6 Positions), ambitious and energetic who will work both independently and as part of a collaborative team to generate data from various genomics-oriented workflows and assist in the optimization and validation of new technologies and procedures.
• Master’s in Science, 0 – 4 years of relevant experience
• Interpretation of variants/mutations causing genetic disorders using standard guidelines.
• Support in data analysis of projects

Reach out to careers@medgenome.com with your detailed profile.

The 2014 CeMM PhD Program

Wed, 05 Feb 2014 06:03:15 -0600

For our next PhD Program starting in October 2014 we are looking for exceptionally motivated PhD candidates with a keen interest in genomics and medicine and a strong interest to work in teams.

The 2014 CeMM PhD Program will focus on two thematic areas: INFECTION and CANCER, that are built on the pillars of epigenetics, bioinformatics and systems biology, chemical biology and the mechanism of action of drugs, high-throughput genetics, genomics and proteomics, and molecular and cell biology.

The choice of this strategic focus rests on the synergies between immunology, infection and cancer in pathophysiological and technological terms. It furthermore reflects the strength of the current CeMM faculty, itself built around the historical and contemporary expertise in immunology and cancer of the Medical University of Vienna.

As a CeMM PhD student you will get the chance to work at the cutting edge of interdisciplinary molecular medicine research and be trained by the entire CeMM and associated faculty to become one of the scientists shaping the future of molecular medicine.
Requirements

To be eligible to enroll in the CeMM PhD Program all candidates are required to have a bachelor’s or master’s degree in medicine, biology, chemistry, bioinformatics, mathematics or any scientific/technical, subject-relevant degree. Candidates do not need to have completed their degree at the time of application, however they must have obtained their final degree certificate by mid-September. The working language at CeMM is English, so excellent written and oral communication skills in English are required.
Timeline

Applications open on 20th January and close on 20th March 2014.
Two references are required to be submitted through the online system by 31st March 2014.
All complete candidate applications are reviewed by the CeMM Faculty in early April.
Selected candidates are invited to a Skype panel interview in late April.
Shortlisted candidates are then invited to Vienna in May for a full interview process, including an opportunity to introduce yourself through a presentation and interview rounds, meet research group members, and attend an informal dinner to get to know the Faculty members and learn more about their research.
Positions are offered by CeMM Faculty in June.
Start of PhD Program: 1st October 2014 .

Contact

Binia Maria Günther, BEd BA
Human Resources Manager
bguenther@cemm.oeaw.ac.at

Catherine Lloyd, Ph.D.
PhD and Postdoc Program Manager
clloyd@cemm.oeaw.ac.at

More Info: www.cemm.oeaw.ac.at/phd-program/application/

Scripted DNA !!!

Jit — Mon, 17 Aug 2015 17:44:04 -0500

As per bioinformatician DNA is partially scripted ;) You dont believe in it. Please have a look at image carefully:)

JRF @ MANIT

Sun, 02 Feb 2014 03:07:58 -0600

MAULANA AZAD NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY BHOPAL

No. CSE/14/1038

Walk in Interview for the post of JRF under TEQIP-II

SN Department – Qualification Post Graduation – Time

1 Bio-Informatics & Mathematics M.Tech Bio-informatics/M.Sc.* Maths 10.00 AM

2 Biological Sciences M.Sc.* in any branch of Biological Sciences 10.30 AM

3 Chemical Engineering M.Tech Chemical Engineering 11.00 AM

4 Chemistry M.Sc.* Chemistry 11.30 AM

5 Civil Engineering M.Tech Structure/GeoTech. /Water -Resources/Hydraulics/Environment/Transport 12.00 Noon

6 GIS M.Tech GIS/Civil 12.30 PM

7 Computer Science & Engineering M.Tech CSE/Information Security 01.00 PM

8 Electrical Engineering M.Tech Electrical Derives 01.30 PM

9 Electronics & Communication M.Tech Digital Communication 02.00 PM

10 MSME M.Tech Material Science/ Mechanical/Metallurgy 02.30 PM

11 Physics M.Sc.* Physics 03.00 PM

* M.Sc. with NET/GATE qualified

Resume along with one passport size photograph and relevant documents are required at the time of interview

Amount of Fellowship: Rs 18000/-month+ HRA

Duration: 31st Dec 2014 (End of TEQIP-II project)

Date of Interview: 7th February 2014

Venue Institute Committee Room

http://www.manit.ac.in/manitbhopal/Year2014/Recruitment/Advertisement%20JRF.pdf