For
GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 4. Excerpt: By using a DNA “bar code”
of 23 short snips from the genes of parasites that cause malaria,
scientists can now often quickly determine where they originated,
British researchers report. The information could be useful in fighting
local outbreaks, which may be caused by parasites from other parts of
the world. And it should be possible to make a test kit that will get
that information from a spot of dried blood in two hours — far less time
than is needed to sequence a whole genome. For the study, published on
Friday in the journal Nature Communications, researchers from the London
School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine analyzed the DNA of more than
700 malaria-causing parasites from all over the world. For Plasmodium
falciparum — the most dangerous species — they found 23 consistent
mutations that let them tell, with 92 percent accuracy, whether a strain
was from West Africa, East Africa, Southeast Asia, South America or the
South Pacific. They still hope to find markers that distinguish strains
from Central America, the Caribbean, southern Africa and the Indian
subcontinent.... http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/17/health/a-faster-way-to-find-the-origin-of-malaria.html. By Donald G. McNeil Jr, The New York Times. |
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