461 papers
This study establishes the most comprehensive phylogenetic framework for Macromiidae dragonflies using Anchored Hybrid Enrichment data to resolve their evolutionary relationships, divergence times, and biogeographic history, revealing a late Oligocene Afrotropical origin with subsequent Miocene diversification across multiple continents driven by trait-independent factors rather than habitat shifts.
This study reveals that industrial melanism in the peppered moth evolved independently in Britain and continental Europe via distinct structural variants at the same *ivory* locus, demonstrating that parallel adaptation can arise from multiple different mutations within a single gene.
This study reveals that approximately 20% of cultivated enset in Ethiopia are recurrently evolved triploids that farmers have historically selected for their distinct names and higher productivity, offering a valuable genetic resource for future breeding and food security.
This study demonstrates that in the marine sponge *Amphimedon queenslandica*, the rapid nuclear translocation of innate immune transcription factors (NF-κB, IRF, and STAT) within amoebocytes serves as an early regulatory checkpoint that distinguishes beneficial symbiotic bacteria from foreign microbes, thereby enabling the host to maintain beneficial associations while avoiding inappropriate immune activation.
This study reveals that while most horizontally acquired genes in bacteria are rapidly lost due to genomic deletion bias, a small subset of functionally important genes with extensive protein interactions survives initial purging to persist over the long term, with retention patterns heavily skewed toward specific bacterial lineages.
By analyzing high-resolution genomic data from over 8,000 SNPs across the Iberian coast, this study identifies three distinct evolutionary significant units of the wedge clam *Donax trunculus* (Atlantic, Balearic, and Alboran Seas) and highlights contrasting temporal genetic changes to advocate for management strategies aligned with biological rather than political boundaries.
This study investigates the molecular basis of behavioral diversity in a trio of closely related *Drosophila* sibling species by revealing that brain regions controlling movement are highly conserved while visual systems are divergent, and by applying set theory to narrow down candidate neuronal genes responsible for newly identified locomotor differences.
This study demonstrates that differences in skeletal muscle growth among teleost fish species are driven by variations in the spatial patterning of hyperplasia and the autonomous regulation of muscle stem cells through extracellular matrix gene expression.
By integrating high-resolution geomorphic data with sea-level models, this study reconstructs the millennial-scale evolution of Panama's Bocas del Toro Archipelago to reveal how its unique history of sequential island isolation and habitat fluctuation drives terrestrial biodiversity patterns, while projecting significant future shifts in shallow marine habitats under climate change.
This study identifies the *ivory:mir-193* non-coding RNA locus as a major genetic determinant of melanic camouflage polymorphism in *Anticarsia gemmatalis* moths, demonstrating that cis-regulatory variation at this locus drives morph-specific expression and that the miR-193 component is essential for dark-scale development.
This study reveals that red pigmentation in extrafloral nectaries is a globally convergent trait driven by selective pressures, particularly fungal defense, which is most prevalent in cold-wet regions and deserts across diverse plant lineages.
This study demonstrates that convergent evolution of amylase expression in diverse primate lineages arose through independent genomic rearrangements driven by retrotransposon insertions and non-allelic homologous recombination, leading to distinct gene copies with similar functional outcomes.
Analysis of 25 years of data across 159 North American bird species reveals that environmental effects driving phenotypic plasticity, rather than natural selection, are causing avian body mass distributions to shrink and lose their heaviest individuals, particularly at southern range limits.
This study challenges the prevailing view that prezygotic barriers dominate plant speciation by demonstrating that early-evolving postzygotic barriers, such as high F1 mortality, play a critical role in the ecological speciation of the tree *Metrosideros polymorpha*, suggesting a classical speciation model for trees that contrasts with patterns observed in temperate herbs.
This study evaluates the performance of three geometric morphometric methods—elliptical Fourier analysis, landmark-based geometric morphometrics, and the ShellShaper growth model—using *Littorina saxatilis* ecotypes to provide evidence-based guidelines for selecting the most appropriate technique based on specific research goals, such as high-throughput screening, clustering power, or detailed anatomical analysis.
By analyzing whole-genome resequencing data from 639 accessions across 48 North American *Vitis* species, this study reveals that widespread introgression comprising approximately 14% of the genome drives parallel adaptation and hybrid swarm formation, highlighting the central role of shared genetic variation in the genus's adaptive radiation.
By integrating developmental, molecular, ultrastructural, and connectomic analyses of *Malacoceros fuliginosus*, this study reveals that its diverse cerebral eyes are homologous, inverted rhabdomeric structures that likely originated from an ancestral duplication event, providing a unified framework for understanding annelid eye evolution.
This study demonstrates that frequency-dependent fitness effects are ubiquitous in *E. coli* populations, challenging the assumption of constant selection by revealing that competitive advantages typically decline as mutant frequency increases and that these dynamics significantly alter evolutionary trajectories.
This study demonstrates that alternative splicing is a widespread mechanism driving sexual dimorphism in *Timema* stick insects, particularly in male gonads, and that the transition to asexuality leads to a systematic erosion of this splicing complexity, suggesting sexual selection plays a key role in maintaining isoform diversity.
This study utilizes comprehensive genomic analyses to reveal that the widely studied ctenophore *Mnemiopsis leidyi* actually comprises two distinct cryptic species, *M. leidyi* and *M. gardeni*, which diverged during the Pleistocene and are shaped by genomic rearrangements and environmental adaptation along the US Atlantic coast.