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Orangutan genome mix-up muddies conservation efforts

By Freda Kreier

Susie the Sumatran orangutan was a genetic pioneer — the first of her species to have her genome fully sequenced. Her genetic library, and that of ten other orangutans, appeared in a landmark paper in Nature in 20111 that has underpinned hundreds of subsequent studies.

But in August, researchers revealed that eight of the sequences in this paper had mistakenly been assigned to the wrong orangutans2Nature issued a correction from the authors of the original paper3.

The scale of the errors sparked ire on social media, and some scientists have warned that the mistakes could have repercussions for orangutan breeding programmes. “Well that’s a bit of a f&£k up orang-utan genome researchers — only mildly embarrassing guys and girls”, tweeted Michael Sweet, a molecular ecologist at the University of Derby, UK…

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