Evolutionary Biology

Host and antibiotic jointly select for greater virulence in Staphylococcus aureus

1. Michelle Su
2. Kim L Hoang
3. McKenna Penley
4. Michelle H Davis
5. Jennifer D Gresham
6. Levi T Morran
7. Timothy D Read

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study examines the evolution of virulence and antibiotic resistance in Staphylococcus aureus under multiple selection pressures, specifically host immune function and antibiotic exposure. The evidence presented is convincing, supported by rigorous phenotypic and genomic data from within-host evolution experiments. The manuscript now provides a nuanced and robust interpretation of how pathogens adapt to complex selective landscapes.

Reviewed by eLife

A protein interactome for the last eukaryotic common ancestor illuminates the biochemical basis of modern genetic diseases

1. Rachael M. Cox
2. Ophelia Papoulas
3. Shirlee Shril
4. Chanjae Lee
5. Tynan Gardner
6. Zoya Ansari
7. Anna M. Battenhouse
8. Muyoung Lee
9. Kevin Drew
10. Claire D. McWhite
11. David Yang
12. Janelle C. Leggere
13. Dannie Durand
14. Friedhelm Hildebrandt
15. John B. Wallingford
16. Edward M. Marcotte

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

The emergence of medusa-specific cell states in the scyphozoan Aurelia coerulea

1. Oliver Link
2. Stefan M. Jahnel
3. Kristin Janicek
4. Daniel Guerguerian
5. Johanna Kraus
6. Juan D. Montenegro
7. Bob Zimmerman
8. Brittney Wick
9. Konstantin Khalturin
10. Alison G. Cole
11. Ulrich Technau

Reviewed by Review Commons

Population structure can reduce clonal interference when sexual reproduction and dispersal are synchronized

1. Qihan Liu
2. Daniel B. Weissman

Reviewed by Peer Community in Evolutionary Biology

Evolution of sideways locomotion in crabs

1. Junya Taniguchi
2. Tsubasa Inoue
3. Kano Kohara
4. Jung-Fu Huang
5. Atsushi Hirai
6. Nobuaki Mizumoto
7. Fumio Takeshita
8. Yuuki Kawabata

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable study presents a comparative dataset on crab locomotion to examine the evolution of sideways walking. The evidence supporting the authors' claims is largely convincing. This work will be of interest to researchers in animal locomotion.

Reviewed by eLife

The adaptive landscapes of three global Escherichia coli transcriptional regulators

1. Cauã Antunes Westmann
2. Leander Goldbach
3. Andreas Wagner

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study maps the genotype-phenotype landscapes of three E. coli transcription factors and the topographical features of these landscapes. It shows that ruggedness and epistasis do not hinder the evolution of strong transcription factor binding sites. These convincing findings contribute important insights into fitness landscape theories and highlight the role of chance, contingency, and evolutionary biases in gene regulation. The authors then study the topographical features of these landscapes, especially the number and distribution of local maxima, as well as the statistical properties of evolutionary paths on these landscapes.

Reviewed by eLife

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

1. Jacob 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