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Towering Giants' Genomes

Researchers are seeking to untangle the redwood genome to help boost its numbers CBS News reports.

Redwoods have towered over California for ages — an iconic sequoia that fell during a storm last year was estimated to be a thousand years old — but their numbers dwindled as they were used for building and cleared to make way for roads. According to CBS News, only about a quarter of the coast redwood habitat, which once spanned two million acres, is protected from logging and development.

The Save the Redwoods League aims to restore the number of redwoods in part by analyzing the genomes of its most long-lived specimens to identify younger ones that then might have the best shot of surviving and giving them more space to grow by culling other trees, CBS News adds.

"Within a hundred years we absolutely can set these forests on a healthy trajectory where they have many of the characteristics we're looking for in old growth," Emily Burns, a researcher with the Save the Redwoods League, tells CBS News.

The Scan

Study Examines Insights Gained by Adjunct Trio RNA Sequencing in Complex Pediatric Disease Cases

Researchers in AJHG explore the diagnostic utility of adding parent-child RNA-seq to genome sequencing in dozens of families with complex, undiagnosed genetic disease.

Clinical Genomic Lab Survey Looks at Workforce Needs

Investigators use a survey approach in Genetics in Medicine Open to assess technologist applications, retention, and workforce gaps at molecular genetics and clinical cytogenetics labs in the US.

Study Considers Gene Regulatory Features Available by Sequence-Based Modeling

Investigators in Genome Biology set sequence-based models against observational and perturbation assay data, finding distal enhancer models lag behind promoter predictions.

Genetic Testing Approach Explores Origins of Blastocyst Aneuploidy

Investigators in AJHG distinguish between aneuploidy events related to meiotic missegregation in haploid cells and those involving post-zygotic mitotic errors and mosaicism.