Overview
- Published in Mobile DNA, the University of East Anglia study analyzed RNA from 17 adult bears and found significantly higher transposable-element activity in southeastern Greenland, where conditions are warmer and more variable.
- Gene activity shifts clustered around heat stress, ageing and metabolic pathways, with changes near fat-processing genes consistent with bears in the south relying more on lower‑fat, land-based foods.
- The authors report what they describe as the first statistically significant link between local temperature differences and altered DNA activity in a wild mammal.
- Researchers stress key limits: a small sample (5 southeast, 12 northeast), single time-point, blood-based RNA measures, and correlation that does not establish causation or prove inherited genomic changes.
- Southeastern Greenland is highlighted as a “future Arctic” preview, and the team calls for broader surveys across ~20 sub-populations and long-read, whole-genome work, alongside continued emissions cuts, to inform conservation.