Evolutionary Biology

Pervasive relaxed selection on spermatogenesis genes coincident with the evolution of polygyny in gorillas

1. Jacob D. Bowman
2. Neide Silva
3. Erik Schüftan
4. Joana M. Almeida
5. Rion Brattig-Correia
6. Raquel A. Oliveira
7. Frank Tüttelmann
8. David Enard
9. Paulo Navarro-Costa
10. Vincent J. Lynch

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study reports that genome-wide signatures of relaxed purifying selection in genes associated with male fertility may reflect an evolutionary response to reduced sperm competition in the gorilla mating system. The authors present compelling data that robustly support their central conclusion. This work will be of broad interest to investigators in evolutionary biology and reproductive biology.

Reviewed by eLife

Mosaic of somatic mutations in one of Earth’s largest organisms, Pando

1. Rozenn M Pineau
2. Karen E Mock
3. Jesse Morris
4. Vachel Kraklow
5. Andrea Brunelle
6. Aurore Pageot
7. William C Ratcliff
8. Zachariah Gompert

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This useful study examines patterns of clonal reproduction and somatic mutations in 'Pando', a massive, quaking aspen clone consisting of ~47000 stems. Because the study relies on relatively low-coverage, reduced-representation genomic resequencing data for the detection of somatic mutations, the evidence provided for several of the primary conclusions about clone age and the relationship between mutation accumulation and geographic distance is incomplete.

Reviewed by eLife

Latent gene network expression underlies partial re-evolution of a polyphenic trait in the worker caste of ants

1. Angelly Vasquez-Correa
2. Johanna Arnet
3. Travis Chen
4. Ehab Abouheif

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study explores whether complex structures that are lost during evolution can re-evolve, which is a long-standing debate in evolutionary and developmental biology. The authors demonstrate that re-evolution can occur if the gene regulatory network that underlies the development of complex traits is maintained. The evidence supporting its conclusions is solid and the work will be of interest to those studying the evolution and development of complex traits.

Reviewed by eLife

Limited directional selection but coevolutionary signals among imprinted genes in A. lyrata

1. Audrey Le veve
2. Ömer Iltas
3. Julien Dutheil
4. Clement Lafon Placette

Reviewed by Peer Community in Evolutionary Biology

No evidence for disassortative mating based on HLA in a small-scale, endogamous population

1. Gillian L Meeks
2. Brooke Scelza
3. Katherine. M Kichula
4. Catrinel Berevoescu
5. Kristin Hardy
6. Ticiana DJ Farias
7. Genelle F Harrison
8. Nicholas R Pollock
9. Neus Font-Porterias
10. Sean Prall
11. Paul J Norman
12. Brenna M Henn

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study addresses the long-debated hypothesis that humans preferentially choose partners with dissimilar immune genes, using data from a small-scale society that allows comparison between arranged and self-chosen partnerships. Across multiple analyses controlling for genome-wide relatedness and examining functional immune diversity, the authors find no evidence of HLA/MHC-based (dis)assortative mating, suggesting that immune gene variation has limited influence on mate choice in this relatively homogeneous population and that the observed patterns instead reflect selection acting directly on immune loci. While the strength of the evidence is compelling for this population, several conclusions rely on indirect reconstruction methods and imputed data for a very complex region of the genome, which may limit how firmly some claims can be supported.

Reviewed by eLife

Wing shape evolution is not constrained by ancestral genetic covariances in the invasive Drosophila suzukii

1. Antoine Fraimout
2. Stéphane Chantepie
3. Nicolas Navarro
4. Céline Teplitsky
5. Vincent Debat

Reviewed by Peer Community in Evolutionary Biology

Evolutionary adaptation proceeds through a small number of phenotypic modules

1. Mohammad Hossein Donyavi
2. Reza Ghelich
3. Kara Schmidlin
4. Grant Kinsler
5. Kerry Geiler-Samerotte

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

Evidence of latency reshapes our understanding of Ebola virus reservoir dynamics

1. John T. McCrone
2. Guy Baele
3. Ifeanyi F. Omah
4. Eddy Kinganda-Lusamaki
5. Joseph A. Brew
6. Luiz M. Carvalho
7. Gytis Dudas
8. Placide Mbala-Kingebeni
9. Marc A. Suchard
10. Andrew Rambaut

Reviewed by Rapid Reviews Infectious Diseases, PREreview

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 Praveen et al. 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

Heterozygote advantage cannot explain MHC diversity, but MHC diversity can explain heterozygote advantage

1. Joshua L Cherry

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable study re-evaluates a published simulation model on the role of heterozygote advantage in shaping MHC diversity. By modifying key modeling assumptions, the author argues that the original conclusions depend on a narrow and potentially unrealistic parameter range. While the work is in principle solid, the robustness of this claim is viewed differently by the reviewers. The manuscript further proposes an alternative modeling framework in which expansion of the MHC gene family allows homozygotes to outperform heterozygotes, thereby challenging the idea that heterozygote advantage alone can account for high allelic diversity at MHC loci. The topic is highly relevant for eco-immunology and evolutionary genetics, although a clearer delineation of the model's scope would help readers assess its broader implications.

Reviewed by eLife