295 papers
Evolutionary biology explores the dynamic history of life on Earth, tracing how species change, adapt, and diversify over time. This field investigates the mechanisms driving everything from the development of antibiotic resistance in bacteria to the complex social behaviors of primates, revealing the deep connections that bind all living organisms together.
On Gist.Science, we ensure these groundbreaking discoveries remain accessible by processing every new preprint uploaded to bioRxiv in this category. Our team generates both plain-language overviews and detailed technical summaries for each paper, bridging the gap between raw research and public understanding without requiring a specialized background.
Below are the latest studies in evolutionary biology, offering fresh insights into the ongoing story of life.
This study reveals that in the Bells Vireo, fine-scale riparian dispersal corridors within a desert contact zone drive asymmetric, neutral genome-wide admixture between eastern and western lineages, creating a unique discontinuous genetic pattern rather than evidence of local adaptation.
The paper introduces the Structural History of Eukarya (SHE), a massive phylogeny based on 300 trillion protein-protein structural alignments that reveals a bipartite model of eukaryotic evolution, identifies lineage-specific structural accelerations, and establishes a quantitative framework for assessing proteome quality and selecting model organisms.
This paper introduces the concept of "latent load" from positively selected sites, arguing that it significantly exceeds traditional genetic loads in humans and suggesting that macroevolutionary processes may drive mutation rates toward a population-optimal value where latent and mutational loads are balanced.
This study of wild chimpanzees reveals that while strong social bonds are associated with lower stress levels (cortisol) in females, they paradoxically predict higher stress levels in males, challenging the assumption that social bonds universally confer health benefits across different sexes and social structures.
This study uses 3D-printed bird models across island and mainland environments to demonstrate that while higher predation risk on the mainland selects against conspicuous plumage, reduced predation pressure on islands does not fully explain the evolution of less colorful island bird plumage, suggesting other ecological and evolutionary factors are at play.
By integrating genome assembly, transcriptomics, and epigenomic profiling in *Cameraria ohridella*, this study reveals that ancestral and neo-sex chromosome regions employ distinct dosage compensation mechanisms—repression via H4K16ac depletion on the ancestral Z versus upregulation via H4K16ac enrichment on the neo-Z—suggesting that neo-sex chromosomes often evolve novel, *Drosophila*-like compensation strategies rather than co-opting existing ancestral mechanisms.
This study establishes a stable transformation protocol for the *Paramecium bursaria* endosymbiont *Micractinium conductrix* SAG 241.80, providing essential molecular tools such as optimized regulatory sequences, selectable markers, and fluorescent reporters to enable the unambiguous tracking and genetic manipulation of algal symbionts within their host for advancing photosymbiosis research.
This study reorganizes the fungal family Corymbiglomeraceae by describing new genera and species from Mexico and French Polynesia, confirming the phylogenetic split of the genus *Redeckera* into distinct lineages including *Albocarpum* and *Pulvinocarpum*, while proposing a sporulation dimorphism in *Albocarpum* and identifying potential new families and genera within the order Diversisporales based on morphological and molecular analyses of eDNA sequences.
By combining controlled climate-chamber trials with a continental-scale citizen science experiment, this study reveals that while genotype-by-environment interactions drive germination and early development in fir and beech, post-establishment survival is primarily governed by site-level environmental filtering, highlighting a critical life-stage shift in the factors shaping forest regeneration.
This study demonstrates that analyzing evolutionary rate covariation across 22 *Plasmodium* species effectively identifies functionally linked proteins and prioritizes uncharacterized genes, such as PF3D7_0811600, for further experimental validation of their roles in malaria parasite biology.