LimbLab: A tool to vizualise development in 3D
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 6-Jun-2026 06:15 ET (6-Jun-2026 10:15 GMT/UTC)
An international study investigating the genomic diversity of the Sudanese population reveals that the Copts originating in Egypt –who settled in the country between the seventh and eleventh centuries– have acquired a genetic variant that protects them from contracting malaria. “The acquisition of this variant has taken place very quickly, in just 1,500 years, after a group of Copts mixed with Sudanese populations with sub-Saharan characteristics”, explains David Comas, principal investigator at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (IBE: CSIC-Pompeu Fabra University) and a full professor and researcher at the UPF Department of Medicine and Life Sciences, who has led the research. The study of 125 high-coverage genomes representing five of the country’s ethnolinguistic groups has enabled describing more than a million novel genetic variants, 1,500 of which could have implications for diseases.
Some Argentinian penguins are experiencing high levels of predation from pumas recolonising their historical territory. A new study has quantified the risk on long-term penguin population survival.
Over four years, pumas at a national park on the Argentinian Patagonia coast are thought to have killed over 7,000 adult penguins (7.6% of the colony’s adult population) – but left many uneaten.
Long-term, however, puma predation alone is unlikely to threaten colony viability, while low breeding success and reduced juvenile survival appear to be greater threats to the survival of these penguins.
The findings have been published today (5 February) in the Journal for Nature Conservation.