Rise of the Continent of the Monkeys

The landscape of tolerated genetic variation in humans and primates. (2023)
Journal Article
Gao, H., Hamp, T., Ede, J., Schraiber, J. G., McRae, J., Singer-Berk, M., …Jolly, C. J. (2023). The landscape of tolerated genetic variation in humans and primates. Science, 380(6648), https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abn8197

Personalized genome sequencing has revealed millions of genetic differences between individuals, but our understanding of their clinical relevance remains largely incomplete. To systematically decipher the effects of human genetic variants, we obtain... Read More about The landscape of tolerated genetic variation in humans and primates..

Identification of constrained sequence elements across 239 primate genomes. (2023)
Journal Article
Kuderna, L. F., Ulirsch, J. C., Rashid, S., Ameen, M., Sundaram, L., Hickey, G., …Farh, K. K.-H. (2023). Identification of constrained sequence elements across 239 primate genomes. Nature, 36, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06798-8

Noncoding DNA is central to our understanding of human gene regulation and complex diseases , and measuring the evolutionary sequence constraint can establish the functional relevance of putative regulatory elements in the human genome . Identifying... Read More about Identification of constrained sequence elements across 239 primate genomes..

A global catalog of whole-genome diversity from 233 primate species. (2023)
Journal Article
Kuderna, L. F. K., Gao, H., Janiak, M. C., Kuhlwilm, M., Orkin, J. D., Bataillon, T., …Jolly, C. J. (2023). A global catalog of whole-genome diversity from 233 primate species. Science, 380(6648), 906-913. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abn7829

The rich diversity of morphology and behavior displayed across primate species provides an informative context in which to study the impact of genomic diversity on fundamental biological processes. Analysis of that diversity provides insight into lon... Read More about A global catalog of whole-genome diversity from 233 primate species..

A 50-million-year-old, three-dimensionally preserved bat skull supports an early origin for modern echolocation (2023)
Journal Article
Hand, S. J., Maugoust, J., Beck, R. M., & Orliac, M. J. (2023). A 50-million-year-old, three-dimensionally preserved bat skull supports an early origin for modern echolocation. Current Biology, 33(21), 4624-4640. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2023.09.043

Bats are among the most recognizable, numerous, and widespread of all mammals. But much of their fossil record is missing, and bat origins remain poorly understood, as do the relationships of early to modern bats. Here, we describe a new early Eocene... Read More about A 50-million-year-old, three-dimensionally preserved bat skull supports an early origin for modern echolocation.