Stephan Schuster, Penn State (IMAGE)
Caption
This image shows scientist Stephan Schuster in his gene-sequencing laboratory at Penn State University. One of his research results is the sequencing of the DNA from a rare, ancient polar bear fossil, which is yielding information about the response of the species to the devastation wrought by past climate changes. Analyses of the fossil's DNA reveals key pieces of the evolutionary history of both polar bears and brown bears. The fossil's DNA is, by far, the oldest mammal mitochondrial genome to be sequenced -- about twice the age of the oldest genome sequence from a woolly mammoth. The team that accomplished this research, which is published in the 1 March 2010 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is led by Stephan Schuster at Penn State University and Charlotte Lindqvist at the University at Buffalo.
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Penn State University
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