A origem da peste negra?

Veio da Rússia:
https://zap.aeiou.pt/ja-sabe-veio-peste-negra-284040

Redesenho do ADN

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/may/15/cambridge-scientists-create-worlds-first-living-organism-with-fully-redesigned-dna

Citando:
"More than 18,000 edits later, the scientists had removed every occurrence of the three codons from the bug’s genome. The redesigned genetic code was then chemically synthesised and, piece by piece, added to E coli where it replaced the organism’s natural genome. The result, reported in Nature, is a microbe with a completely synthetic and radically altered DNA code. Known as Syn61, the bug is a little longer than normal, and grows more slowly, but survives nonetheless."

Replicação de ADN melhor compreendida

https://zap.aeiou.pt/cientistas-misterio-adn-replica-234368

Citando:
"observaram três sequências ao longo da molécula de ADN que se tocavam com frequência.

(dr) Sima et al

Foi então que decidiram usar a tecnologia de edição genética CRISPR para remover essas três áreas simultaneamente. Com esta experiência, os cientistas descobriram que esses três elementos juntos eram a chave para a replicação do ADN. “A remoção destes três elementos mudou o tempo de replicação do segmento desde o início até ao fim do processo”, afirmou Gilbert."

Manipulação genética de...

... embriões:
https://www.jn.pt/mundo/interior/o-que-e-feito-do-frankenstein-chines-que-tera-alterado-do-adn-de-bebes-10272836.html

Citando:
"(...) explicou ter recorrido à técnica CRISPR/Cas9, para alterar o genoma dos dois embriões, de forma a torná-los resistentes a eventuais infeções pelo VIH. A experiência foi, segundo He, um sucesso, uma vez que as irmãs nasceram no início de novembro "normais e saudáveis". O objetivo, reforçou, não passa por criar bebés "mais inteligentes, mudar a cor dos olhos ou a aparência", mas, sim, "curar uma doença"."

Colonização da América?

https://gizmodo.com/three-new-dna-studies-are-shaking-up-the-history-of-hum-1830313369

Citando:
"A pair of closely related genetics papers, one published in Science and one in Cell, chronicles the movement of the first humans as they spread across the Americas, venturing both southward and northward and sometimes mixing in with the local populations. The third paper, published in Science Advances, shows what happened to one group of migrants who decided to make the high-altitude Andes their home—a decision that sent them down a unique evolutionary path."

CRISPR e exterminação?

https://futurism.com/gene-drive-mosquitos-crispr/

Citando:
"
Scientists Wiped Out a Mosquito Population by Hacking Their DNA With CRISPR

For their study, published Monday in the journal Nature Biotechnology, the researchers used CRISPR to modify the gene responsible for determining sex in 150 male mosquitoes. That alteration made the male gene dominant — the idea was, over time, that the population would stop producing females, driving them to collapse.

The researchers added these genetically altered mosquitoes to a caged population of 450 unaltered male and female mosquitoes to reproduce with them. The hack worked: Subsequent generations of females exhibited male and female characteristics, couldn’t bite, and couldn’t lay eggs. By the eighth generation, there were no longer any females in the population at all.

WILD CARD

This is the first time scientists have seen a gene drive effectively suppress an entire population.

But knowing that the technology works is only one part of the battle. We also need to figure out whether it could cause any unintended side effects if it’s unleashed outside the lab."

Transferência horizontal de genes

https://text.npr.org/s.php?sId=637780618

Citando:
"Is our human view of life and lineage profoundly wrong? Darwin's tree of life, by which many of us see our ancestry - with genes and traits passed vertically, root to branch, from parent to child and so on for centuries - doesn't include what science has discovered over the past couple of generations. Horizontal gene transfer or HGT - genetic matter we don't inherit but acquire sideways, if you please, virally from other organisms, even other species. Roughly 8 percent of the human genome arrived that way. The tree of life is really a web.

David Quammen traces the story and implications of this discovery in his new book "The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History Of Life." He's an award-winning science, nature and travel writer. His work has appeared in National Geographic, Rolling Stone and The New York Times' Book Review. David Quammen joins us now from Bozeman, Mont. Thanks so much for being with us."

Testes genéticos e seguros de saúde

https://text.npr.org/s.php?sId=636026264

2018-01: Exames de ADN em múmias com 4000 anos

https://tecake.in/dna-analysis-egyptian-brother-mummies-reveals-different-fathers/amp

Pistas genéticas para a morte dos mamutes

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-39142941

Proteínas em cabelos podem ser usadas em investigações forenses

Num futuro próximo. As proteínas degradam-se menos que o ADN com o tempo:
http://www.techtimes.com/articles/176792/20160908/when-dna-fails-a-single-strand-of-hair-may-save-the-day.htm
Citando:
"A breakthrough study has established that proteins found in human hair can work like fingerprints in the arena of crime investigation. This is because hair protein is unique to each individual and is more effective than traditional DNA profiling used in forensic analysis of human remains.
The new study beats the limitations posed by the conventional DNA profiling used by forensic scientists. It asserts that proteins are more stable and can offer accurate identification of human remains.
Details of the protein-centric hair analysis technique were published in PLOS ONE. According to lead author Brad Hart, a forensic scientist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), the protein analysis will be a "game changer""

Brincando com o fogo, ou melhor, com o ADN

http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-25/extra-letters-added-to-lifes-genetic-code/8210788?pfmredir=sm

Manipulação genética low-cost

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/sep/30/experts-warn-home-gene-editing-kits-pose-risk-to-society
Citando:
"Genome editing has become a common tool in laboratories around the world. The most common technique, called Crispr-cas9, works like a pair of molecular scissors. It is essentially a pair of enzymes that can be designed to find and remove a specific strand of DNA inside a cell, and then replace it with a new piece of genetic material. The procedure can be used to rewrite single letters of genetic code and even whole genes."

As origens da vida e os cometas (Rosetta)

http://observador.pt/2016/05/18/genetica-estamos-mais-perto-de-descobrir-a-origem-da-vida/
Na Science (EN):
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/05/rna-world-inches-closer-explaining-origins-life


Citando:
"Pense no ARN – ácido ribonucleico – como um longo colar de quatro missangas diferentes, onde essas peças são moléculas químicas. Há a adenina (A), a guanina (G), a citosina (C) e o uracilo (U), que é o único componente que o distingue do ADN, feito antes com um composto chamado timina (T). Ora, em 2009, um cientista britânico conseguiu reconstituir os passos que levaram os compostos químicos a formar a citosina e o uracilo (ambas chamadas também de pirimidinas). Mas nenhuma outra teoria conseguia explicar de forma plausível a formação da adenina e da guanina.
Até agora. Quando os cientistas alemães estavam a estudar os ADN danificados, perceberam que há uma molécula – a formamidopirimidina (FaPy) – que reage muito depressa e forma purinas, ou seja, esses compostos químicos de adenina e de guanina. Concentraram-se então nessa molécula. E repararam que é realmente possível que as condições primordiais da Terra tenham permitido reações semelhantes na altura em que a vida se criou."

Esfera com micro organismos do espaço?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2955620/Did-aliens-send-metal-orb-seed-life-Earth-Microscopic-sphere-contain-microorganisms-claims-astrobiologist.html

Curiosamente, um dos primeiros defensores da tese é um dos mais brilhantes cientistas do Séc. XX descobridor do ADN, Francis Crick.