Decreasing biodiversity may promote spread of viruses

New insight into the dynamics of infectious disease

28-Sep-2023 - How are environmental changes, loss of biodiversity, and the spread of pathogens connected? The answer is a puzzle. Researchers from Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin have now described one piece of that puzzle in the journal eLife,* showing that the destruction of tropical rainforests harms ...

Start-up Colossal Biosciences Joins Biorescue In Its Mission To Save The Northern White Rhino From Extinction

Colossal will assist the rescue mission by leveraging genome sequencing and gene editing methods to save the endangered species

22-Sep-2023 - With only two living females left, the partnership will contribute to the genetic recovery of the northern white rhino from complete extinction. Colossal developed a pioneering toolkit for the challenging task to restore genetic diversity from museal specimens for a living population of ...

Revealing the Genome of the Common Ancestor of All Mammals

Chromosomes stable over 300 million years

30-Sep-2022 - An international team has reconstructed the genome organization of the earliest common ancestor of all mammals. The reconstructed ancestral genome could help in understanding the evolution of mammals and in conservation of modern animals. The earliest mammal ancestor likely looked like the fossil ...

Gene recombination deactivates retroviruses during invasion of host genomes

09-Aug-2018 - Most vertebrate genomes contain a surprisingly large number of viral gene sequences – about eight percent in humans. And yet how do exogenous viruses – apparently having invaded from outside – manage to become integrated into the host genome? Answers to this question are provided in a study by an ...

The first kobuviruses described from Africa

16-Feb-2015 - An international team of researchers led by scientists at the German Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW) genetically describe the first kobuviruses to be reported from Africa. The results show that the viruses are less host-specific than previously assumed. The study has been ...

A pregnancy test for Lynxes

06-Aug-2009 - Experts of the Program for the captive breeding of the Iberian lynx and the Leibniz-Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (in Berlin, Germany) have validated a pregnancy test using urine and plasma samples to detect pregnant female lynxes. With this technique, that complements the most used ...