The genome sequencing company Illumina has just delivered the results of a complete human genome sequencing to a customer.

Here’s the quote from the paper…

Background

From Paleo-Indian times to recent historical episodes, the Mesoamerican isthmus played an important role in the distribution and patterns of variability all around the double American continent. However, the amount of genetic information currently available on Central American continental populations is very scarce. In order to shed light on the role of Mesoamerica in the peopling of the New World, the present study focuses on the analysis of the mtDNA variation in a population sample from El Salvador.

Methodology/Principal Findings

We have carried out DNA sequencing of the entire control region of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) genome in 90 individuals from El Salvador. We have also compiled more than 3,985 control region profiles from the public domain and the literature in order to carry out inter-population comparisons. The results reveal a predominant Native American component in this region: by far, the most prevalent mtDNA haplogroup in this country (at ~90%) is A2, in contrast with other North, Meso- and South American populations. Haplogroup A2 shows a star-like phylogeny and is very diverse with a substantial proportion of mtDNAs (45%; sequence range 16090–16365) still unobserved in other American populations. Two different Bayesian approaches used to estimate admixture proportions in El Salvador shows that the majority of the mtDNAs observed come from North America. A preliminary founder analysis indicates that the settlement of El Salvador occurred about 13,400±5,200 Y.B.P.. The founder age of A2 in El Salvador is close to the overall age of A2 in America, which suggests that the colonization of this region occurred within a few thousand years of the initial expansion into the Americas.

Conclusions/Significance

As a whole, the results are compatible with the hypothesis that today’s A2 variability in El Salvador represents to a large extent the indigenous component of the region. Concordant with this hypothesis is also the observation of a very limited contribution from European and African women (~5%). This implies that the Atlantic slave trade had a very small demographic impact in El Salvador in contrast to its transformation of the gene pool in neighbouring populations from the Caribbean facade.

(via cromagnon)

Looks like the answer is “yes”.

Here’s a quote…

Brain imaging shows playing Tetris leads to a thicker cortex and may also increase brain efficiency, according to research published in the open access journal BMC Research Notes. A research team based in New Mexico is one of the first to investigate the effects of practice in the brain using two image techniques.

(Bolding mine.)

Here’s a quote…

Background

Many models used in theoretical ecology, or mathematical epidemiology are stochastic, and may also be spatially-explicit. Techniques from quantum field theory have been used before in reaction-diffusion systems, principally to investigate their critical behavior. Here we argue that they make many calculations easier and are a possible starting point for new approximations.

Methodology

We review the many-body field formalism for Markov processes and illustrate how to apply it to a ‘Brownian bug’ population model, and to an epidemic model. We show how the master equation and the moment hierarchy can both be written in particularly compact forms. The introduction of functional methods allows the systematic computation of the effective action, which gives the dynamics of mean quantities. We obtain the 1-loop approximation to the effective action for general (space-) translation invariant systems, and thus approximations to the non-equilibrium dynamics of the mean fields.

Conclusions

The master equations for spatial stochastic systems normally take a neater form in the many-body field formalism. One can write down the dynamics for generating functional of physically-relevant moments, equivalent to the whole moment hierarchy. The 1-loop dynamics of the mean fields are the same as those of a particular moment-closure.

(via cromagnon)

Here’s the abstract…

Animal species come in many shapes and sizes, as do the individuals and populations that make up each species. To us, humans might seem to show particularly high levels of morphological variation, but perhaps this perception is simply based on enhanced recognition of individual conspecifics relative to individual heterospecifics. We here more objectively ask how humans compare to other animals in terms of body size variation. We quantitatively compare levels of variation in body length (height) and mass within and among 99 human populations and 848 animal populations (210 species). We find that humans show low levels of within-population body height variation in comparison to body length variation in other animals. Humans do not, however, show distinctive levels of within-population body mass variation, nor of among-population body height or mass variation. These results are consistent with the idea that natural and sexual selection have reduced human height variation within populations, while maintaining it among populations. We therefore hypothesize that humans have evolved on a rugged adaptive landscape with strong selection for body height optima that differ among locations.

(via cromagnon)

Here’s a quote…

In a finding that sheds new light on the neural mechanisms involved in social behavior, neuroscientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have pinpointed the brain structure responsible for our sense of personal space.

(From Kambiz Kamrani.)

(The other famous gene being involved with language is FOXP2.)

If there is a genetic basis to Monogamy^[1] (in humans), it makes you wonder… well, makes me wonder at least… if there’s the potential that Monogamy could be breed out of human populations. And if there’s a potential, are there any signs today which makes it seem like it could be happening.^[2]

From a genetics point-of-view, from what I’ve read, it is easier for loss of function or exaggeration and redirections of functions to occur than to develop wholly new complex adaptations. As an example of that — as an example of what loss of function looks like — when comparing wolves to dogs we see that [m]ale wolves help care for their offspring, but male dogs do not.^[3] Then if we believe that Monogamy is a complex adaptation, then it would lead us to believe that it is easier for Monogamy to be lost than for it to re-evolve from scratch.

[1] Because people can mean different things when they say “monogamy”, to be explicit, what I referring to when I say “monogamy” is, when a male and a female live together, have sex with one another, and cooperate in acquiring basic resources such as food, clothes, and money. Often they also care for and raise offspring to together.

[2] Just to be explicit, I’m a fan of Monogamy.

[3] Even though male dogs don’t care for their offspring, I wonder if the “wiring” for that behavior is still there. But if it’s just kind of muted. And thus, would you really have to re-evolve that behavior from scratch.

Kambiz Kamrani provides interesting insight into a particular article published in Scientific American.

Another interesting article.

Interesting article.

Here’s a quote from the article…

New analysis by a team led by Australian National University doctoral student Debbie Argue showed that Homo floresiensis, nicknamed hobbits, were early hominin and walked out of Africa to Flores. Their findings supports the argument that Homo floresiensis had a unique wrist anatomy that originated from a lineage that lived long before the common ancestor of Homo sapiens and Neanderthals.

(From Kambiz Kamrani)

Our closest acquaintances are nearly strangers to us - and that might not be so bad

(H/T Jason Malloy)