genome

Researchers analysed 163 ant genomes spanning most living subfamilies and reconstructed the insects' evolutionary history over the past 100 million years. The study found periods of rapid species diversification coinciding with increased activity of transposable elements, the mobile DNA sequences that can shuffle through genomes. The findings suggest genome dynamics played a role in driving the extraordinary diversification of ants, one of the most successful groups in the natural world.

Researchers have published a high-resolution genome-wide association study of roughly 600,000 people with East Asian ancestry, aiming to decompose population-level differences in type 2 diabetes risk. The work, appearing in Nature, identifies ancestry-specific genetic factors that may explain why diabetes patterns differ between East Asian and European populations, with potential implications for risk prediction and treatment across populations.

Researchers have assembled the genome and annotated the genes of the Israeli strain of Babesia ovis, a tick-borne parasite affecting sheep, using PacBio HiFi long-read sequencing. Published in Nature's portfolio of scientific data papers, the work provides a high-quality reference genome intended to support future research on the parasite's biology, drug targets and vaccine development. Details of methods and datasets have been made openly available to other researchers.