Our lab has been excited by genomic structural variation because we believe that they underlie a considerable and underappreciated part of the phenotypic variation in primates. It is just that they are challenging to study and come up with straightforward evolutionary stories. Most of the time, what we find is much more complicated than we … Continue reading New paper: Structural variants are awesome – And they affect detoxification genes
New paper: Of archaic admixture in Africa, cherries, and serendipity
We have a new paper -two years in the making - where we showed evidence for introgression from an African archaic hominin to the ancestors of modern humans. This is a relatively big and, I have to admit, a serendipitous finding, corroborating the emerging notion that an "interbreeding bonanza" has shaped our ancestors. I do … Continue reading New paper: Of archaic admixture in Africa, cherries, and serendipity
A note on evolution and disease
I wanted to write this post to discuss an interesting discussion going on with regards to evolutionary basis of human complex diseases. It stems from our paper that looked into the evolution of skin barrier related gene, called fillagrin (FLG). FLG stood out for four conceivable reasons. See this review for more. (i) It is huge. … Continue reading A note on evolution and disease
New paper: Of light, duplications and UV protection
We have helped Cemali Bekpen and the Max Planck Evolutionary Biology Group of Dr. Tautz in resolving a very complicated and variable gene duplication. Even though, some of the trends remain fuzzy, it is now clear that gene duplications of SPATA31 diversified in humans and remain variable. What is more, some of their function has to do … Continue reading New paper: Of light, duplications and UV protection
New Paper – The evolutionary roots of disease susceptibility and complex copy number variation
We just published a paper in Genome Biology and Evolution - "Atopic Dermatitis Susceptibility Variants In Filaggrin Hitchhike Hornerin Selective Sweep". It describes the unusual history of the genetic variation affecting the skin structural protein fillagrin. It turns out that a loss of selective pressure, adaptive restrains on a neighboring gene and a high mutation rate … Continue reading New Paper – The evolutionary roots of disease susceptibility and complex copy number variation
New Paper – Recent evolution of the salivary mucin MUC7
Our paper (led by Erica - Yay), a close collaboration with the ever-wise Stefan Ruhl, on the complex evolution of the smaller one of the two salivary mucins, MUC7, is now published - It is open access and here is the link. Our great press office, particularly Charlotte Hsu made a nice summary of the … Continue reading New Paper – Recent evolution of the salivary mucin MUC7
New paper on BMC Genomics
Jelena Tica from Jan Korbel's group led a rigorous method development effort. You can find the full, open access article here
