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Plus, They Are Cute

Oct 15, 2008

Over the weekend Chinese scientists announced that they've sequenced the giant panda genome and that prompted Keith Robison to explain why having a bear genome is important. He says that there can never be too many genomes sequenced, especially for comparative studies, and pandas, as former carnivores, should give insight into the evolution of that group and how their digestive tract has evolved to digest bamboo. Also, Robison points out that knowing the panda genome and population structure could help the pandas themselves since they have low fertility and are endangered.

Breaking News
The Scan

Gone, But Now Reconstructed SARS-CoV-2 Genomes

In a preprint, a researcher describes his recovery of viral sequences that had been removed from a common database.

Rare Heart Inflammation Warning

The Food and Drug Administration is adding a warning about links between a rare inflammatory heart condition and two SARS-CoV-2 vaccines, Reuters reports.

Sandwich Sampling

The New York Times sent tuna sandwiches for PCR analysis.

Nature Papers Describe Gut Viruses, New Format for Storing Quantitative Genomic Data, More

In Nature this week: catalog of DNA viruses of the human gut microbiome, new dense depth data dump format to store quantitative genomic data, and more.