Why African scientists are studying the genes of African species, and how they do it

By Anne Muigai, Professor of Genetics, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology
Appolinaire Djikeng, Professor, University of Edinburgh
ThankGod Echezona Ebenezer, Bioinformatician, European Bioinformatics Institute

DNA is the blueprint of life. All the information that an organism needs to survive, reproduce, adapt to environments or survive a disease is in its DNA.

That’s why genomics – studying DNA and genes – is so important. It involves sequencing species’ parts or the entire genome. This is a scientific method to determine an organism’s DNA by breaking these components into fragments and determining their compositions or sequences. The fragments are then aligned and merged to reconstruct…

Read complete article

~	South Africa’s constitution was set up as the bedrock of its democracy: it’s been challenged over last 30 years, but has held firm

~	‘Polite littering’ is a rubbish problem – here’s why the British approach to tackling clean ups is not working

~	TikTok users claim freezing bread can make it healthier – here’s what the science actually says

~	Purple Hibiscus: Ibrahim Mahama’s Barbican installation wraps the brutalist building in bright cloth and reveals a hidden history

~	Liz Truss’s lessons on how not to be a prime minister

~	Focus on Rwanda’s safety is a distraction from the dangerous conditions for asylum seekers in the UK

~	Think you’ll never retire? Here are four things young people can do to prepare

~	Philadelphia has a lot more deadly shootings than expected for a big city − and NYC is much safer, new study says

~	Cybersecurity researchers spotlight a new ransomware threat – be careful where you upload files

~	Under the influence and under arrest − what happens if you’re drunk in the interrogation room?