In one of the first large-scale comparisons of multiple animal genomes, scientists at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at MIT, and many collaborating institutions, have analyzed the genomes of twelve species of the fruit fly Drosophila to reveal insights on the evolution of genes and genomes and to discern the functional elements encoded in animal DNA.

New method of selecting DNA for resequencing accelerates discovery of subtle DNA variations

Scientists have used DNA sequences from feather lice to study how island populations of the Galбpagos Hawk might have colonized the Galбpagos islands

Three years ago, "ultraconserved elements" were discovered in the genomes of mice, rats, and humans. These are DNA sequences 200 base pairs in length or longer — some are over 700 base pairs long — showing 100-percent identity among the three species. They have been perfectly conserved since the last common ancestor of mice, rats, and humans, which lived some 85 million years ago.

Scientists have discovered a pattern in the DNA sequence of the mouse genome that may play a fundamental part in the way DNA molecules regulate gene expression. The research, led by Emory University scientists along with colleagues at Jacobs University, Bremen, Germany, will be published in the Aug. 22 Advance Online publication of the journal Nature.

In May, Nobel Laureate James D. Watson, the scientist who co-discovered the structure of DNA, became the first person to receive his own complete personal genome - all three billion base pairs of his DNA code sequenced. The cost was $1 million, and the process took two months.

A major new effort to uncover the medium- and large-scale genetic differences between humans may soon reveal DNA sequences that contribute to a wide range of diseases, according to a paper by Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator Evan Eichler and 17 colleagues published in the May 10, 2007, Nature.

Biologists have converted protein sequences into classical music in an attempt to help vision-impaired scientists and boost the popularity of genomic biology. New research published today in the open access journal Genome Biology describes how researchers have found a way to present human proteins as musical notes.