Evolutionary Biology

The population structure of invasive Lantana camara is shaped by its mating system

1. P. Praveen
2. Rajesh Gopal
3. Uma Ramakrishnan

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  The submission by Gopal and colleagues reports important findings describing the structure of genetic and colour variation in its native range for the globally invasive weed Lantana camara. Whilst the importance of the research question and the scale of the sampling is appreciated, the analysis, which is currently incomplete, requires further tests to support the claims made by the authors.

Reviewed by eLife

Trophic eggs affect caste determination in the ant Pogonomyrmex rugosus

1. E. Genzoni
2. T. Schwander
3. L. Keller

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important manuscript by Genzoni et al. reports the striking discovery of a regulatory role for trophic eggs in ant caste determination. Prior to this study, trophic eggs were widely assumed to play only a nutritional role in the colony, but this compelling study shows that trophic eggs can suppress queen development, and therefore regulate caste determination in specific social contexts.

Reviewed by eLife

Tooth development in frogs: Implications for the re-evolution of lost mandibular teeth and the origin of a morphological innovation

1. Daniel J. Paluh
2. Madeline Brinkman
3. Kyliah Gilliam-Beale
4. Daniela Salcedo-Recio
5. Jacob Szafranski
6. James Hanken
7. Gareth J. Fraser

Reviewed by preLights

Structural evolution of nitrogenase enzymes over geologic time

1. Bruno Cuevas
2. Franka Detemple
3. Kaustubh Amritkar
4. Amanda K Garcia
5. Lance Seefeldt
6. Oliver Einsle
7. Betul Kacar

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This useful study presents computational analyses of over 5,000 predicted extant and ancestral nitrogenase structures. While the data and some analyses are solid, the study remains incomplete in demonstrating that the metrics used for comparing nitrogenase structures are statistically rigorous. The data generated in this study provide a vast resource that can serve as a starting point for functional studies of reconstructed and extant nitrogenases.

Reviewed by eLife

Evolutionary Adaptations of TRPA1 Thermosensitivity and Skin Thermoregulation in Vertebrates

1. Gabriel E. Bertolesi
2. Neda Heshami
3. Sarah McFarlane

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

Dominant contribution of Asgard archaea to eukaryogenesis

1. Victor Tobiasson
2. Jacob Luo
3. Yuri I Wolf
4. Eugene V Koonin

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

Seasonal and comparative evidence of adaptive gene expression in mammalian brain size plasticity

1. William R Thomas
2. Troy Richter
3. Erin T O’Neil
4. Cecilia Baldoni
5. Angelique P Corthals
6. Dominik von Elverfeldt
7. John Nieland
8. Dina KN Dechmann
9. Richard G Hunter
10. Liliana M Dávalos

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study presents valuable findings related to seasonal brain size plasticity in the Eurasian common shrew (Sorex araneus), which is an excellent model system for these studies. The evidence supporting the authors' claims is convincing. The work will be of interest to biologists working on neuroscience, plasticity, and evolution.

Reviewed by eLife

Variation in albumin glycation rates in birds suggests resistance to relative hyperglycaemia rather than conformity to the pace of life syndrome hypothesis

1. Adrián Moreno-Borrallo
2. Sarahi Jaramillo-Ortiz
3. Christine Schaeffer-Reiss
4. Benoît Quintard
5. Benjamin Rey
6. Pierre Bize
7. Vincent A Viblanc
8. Thierry Boulinier
9. Olivier Chastel
10. Jorge S Gutiérrez
11. Jose A Masero
12. Fabrice Bertile
13. François Criscuolo

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study uses extensive comparative analysis to examine the relationship between plasma glucose levels, albumin glycation levels, and diet and life history, within the framework of the "pace of life syndrome" hypothesis. The evidence that glucose is positively correlated with glycation levels and lifespan is convincing and, although there are some limitations related to data collection, they likely make the statistically significant findings more conservative. As the first extensive comparative analysis of glycation rates, life history, and glucose levels in birds, the study has the potential to be of interest to evolutionary ecologists and the aging research community more broadly.

Reviewed by eLife

Ancient biases in phenotype production drove the functional evolution of a protein family

1. Santiago Herrera-Álvarez
2. Jaeda E. J. Patton
3. Joseph W. Thornton

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

Lifestyles shape genome size and gene content in fungal pathogens

1. Anna Fijarczyk
2. Pauline Hessenauer
3. Richard C Hamelin
4. Christian R Landry

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study addresses a topic that is frequently discussed in the literature but is under-assessed, namely correlations among genome size, repeat content, and pathogenicity in fungi. Contrary to previous assertions, the authors found that repeat content is not associated with pathogenicity. Rather, pathogenic lifestyle was found to be better explained by the number of protein-coding genes, with other genomic features associated with insect association status. While the results are considered solid, confidence in the results would be deepened if the authors were to comprehensively account for potential biases stemming from the underlying data quality of the analyzed genomes.

Reviewed by eLife