Dein Suchergebnis zum Thema: DNA

In a shell of a paternity test story, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) scientists found that male desert tortoises that had been relocated from a threatened habitat to a new nearby home are reproducing at a much, much lower rate than resident males.
We used DNA markers to determine the reproductive success of male and female desert

These bats have been dead for more than a century, but they are finding a second “life” as a research specimen. It may sound like a spooky science fiction story, but it is actually the work of scientists at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute’s Center for Conservation Genomics and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.
This can be a tough balancing act, especially if the DNA molecules that we are looking

One of the biggest questions scientists at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) were working hand-in-hand with their colleagues in China to understand in the late 1990s was: why are pandas ‚challenged‘ at reproducing?
Yan tracked reproductive hormones in urine and used DNA paternity analysis to determine

Focus on the Future is a series that seeks to highlight the early career scientists who conduct research at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute. Learn about undergraduate, graduate and post-doctoral fellows, and the conservation research they are supporting through first-hand accounts and stories.
Continue Exploring July 29, 2025 Study: New DNA Tool Identifies Animals by Their

For the first time, SCBI geneticists have sequenced the genome of a vertebrate: A Hawaiian honeycreeper
Sequencing a genome means understanding how the genetic code—the DNA and base pairs

For four years, the Reptile Discovery Center’s Asian water dragon female lived alone. Then, while examining eggs as part of a study, animal keepers made a shocking discovery—one was fertile! How could a female lay a fertile egg without a mate? They turned to the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) for an answer to the mystery: parthenogenesis.
We took a DNA swab from inside her cheek and sent that to our Genomics Lab for testing

Jenny Santiestevan is responsible for overseeing the care, preservation and management of biological frozen collections, mainly from threatened animal species, stored at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute’s biorepository in Front Royal, Virginia. Collections maintained in the facility are from other Smithsonian units as well as other institutions. Prior to her work with the Smithsonian, Santiestevan worked as a licensed veterinary technician for domestic animals and as a clinical laboratory technician and manager.
Scientists collect and freeze biological materials, such as gametes, tissue, milk and DNA

Morgan Bragg is a graduate student researcher at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute’s Center for Conservation Genomics and Center for Species Survival. Bragg’s dissertation focuses on understanding the origins of gastrointestinal health issues in captive canid species. She is specifically interested in host-microbiome-environmental interactions and their influence on host health. Morgan Bragg’s projects include:
Image: Non-invasive and Environmental DNA Scientists can learn a lot about an

Piper Mullins is the program manager for the Pan-Smithsonian Cryo-Initiative (PSCI) and past-president of the Board of the International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories (ISBER). As the program manager for PSCI, she oversees the development of the Smithsonian biorepository network to integrate, standardize, and manage biological frozen collections (i.e. ‚biobanks‘) and their needs.
Scientists collect and freeze biological materials, such as gametes, tissue, milk and DNA

Lookin’ sharp, kid! Prehensile-tailed porcupines Beatrix and Quillbur recently welcomed their second offspring.
sent quill samples to scientists at the Zoo’s Center for Conservation Genomics for DNA