Doing the DNA shuffle

From San Diego, at a meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics

During the 6 million years since humans’ ancestral lineage diverged from the ancestors of the other great apes, DNA near the ends of human chromosomes has evolved more rapidly than scientists had previously realized.

A new comparison of macaque, orangutan, ape, chimpanzee, and human genomes shows a surprising amount of DNA reshuffling in these chromosome regions, called subtelomeres.