Evolutionary Biology

Experimental bleaching of photosymbiotic amoeba revealed strain-dependent differences in algal symbiosis ability

1. Daisuke Yamagishi
2. Ryo Onuma
3. Sachihiro Matsunaga
4. Shin-ya Miyagishima
5. Shinichiro Maruyama

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

Improved inference of population histories by integrating genomic and epigenomic data

1. Thibaut Sellinger
2. Frank Johannes
3. Aurélien Tellier

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important study extends existing sequentially Markovian coalescent approaches to include the combined use of SNPs and hypervariable loci such as epimutations. This is an intriguing addition to infer population size history in the recent past, and the authors provide solid validation of their methods via simulation and analysis of empirical data in Arabidopsis thaliana. Given the increasing availability of such data, this work is a timely contribution and represents a foundation for further developments to explore when and where these methods will be best used.

Reviewed by eLife

Convergent evolution in silico reveals shape and dynamic principles of directed locomotion

1. Renata B Biazzi
2. André Fujita
3. Daniel Y Takahashi

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study provides an important, original framework to study locomotion on the ground with physics-based simulations. Through numerical simulations, the authors propose that intermediate numbers of body modules and high body symmetry enhance speed. The current way discussions and conclusions are written is overly broad: evidence that evolution may favour bilateral symmetry and modularity for efficient directed locomotion is still incomplete as further performance metrics and a more accurate description of the dynamics in water are needed.

Reviewed by eLife

Palaeoproteomic identification of a whale bone tool from Bronze Age Heiloo, the Netherlands

1. Joannes A. A. Dekker
2. Dorothea Mylopotamitaki
3. Annemieke Verbaas
4. Virginie Sinet-Mathiot
5. Samantha Presslee
6. Morgan L. McCarthy
7. Morten Tange Olsen
8. Jesper V. Olsen
9. Youri van den Hurk
10. Joris Brattinga
11. Frido Welker

Reviewed by Peer Community in Archaeology

Distinguishing mutants that resist drugs via different mechanisms by examining fitness tradeoffs

1. Kara Schmidlin
2. Sam Apodaca
3. Daphne Newell
4. Alexander Sastokas
5. Grant Kinsler
6. Kerry Geiler-Samerotte

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study provides valuable new insights into the trade-offs associated with the evolution of drug resistance in the yeast S. cerevisiae, based on a solid approach to evolving and phenotyping hundreds of independent strains. The authors identify distinct phenotypic clusters, defined by their growth across defined conditions, which suggest that tradeoffs are diverse but at the same time could be limited to a few classes according to the underlying resistance mechanisms. The methodologies used align with the current state-of-the-art, and the data and analysis are solid as they broadly support the claims, with only a few minor weaknesses remaining after revision. This work will interest molecular biologists working on the evolution of new phenotypes and microbiologists studying multi-drug therapy.

Reviewed by eLife

Recent evolutionary origin and localized diversity hotspots of mammalian coronaviruses

1. Renan Maestri
2. Benoît Perez-Lamarque
3. Anna Zhukova
4. Hélène Morlon

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  Maestri et al report the absence of phylogenetic evidence supporting codiversification of mammalian coronaviruses and their hosts, leading to the important conclusion that the evolutionary history of the virus and its hosts are decoupled through frequent host switches. The evidence for frequent host switching, derived from state-of-the-art probabilistic modeling of co-evolution, is convincing. The study adds a new perspective to the ongoing debate over the timescale of coronavirus evolution.

Reviewed by eLife

Artificial selection improves pollutant degradation by bacterial communities

1. Flor I. Arias-Sánchez
2. Björn Vessman
3. Alice Haym
4. Géraldine Alberti
5. Sara Mitri

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

The protein domains of vertebrate species in which selection is more effective have greater intrinsic structural disorder

1. Catherine A Weibel
2. Andrew L Wheeler
3. Jennifer E James
4. Sara M Willis
5. Hanon McShea
6. Joanna Masel

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study develops a useful metric for quantifying codon usage adaptation - the Codon Adaptation Index of Species (CAIS). This metric permits direct comparisons of the strength of selection at the molecular level across species. The study is based on solid evidence, and the authors identify relationships between CAIS and the presence of disordered protein domains. Other correlations, such as the one between CAIS and body size, are weak and non-significant. In summary, the study introduces an interesting new approach to quantifying codon usage across species, which may be helpful in attempts to measure selection at the molecular level.

Reviewed by eLife

Annelid Comparative Genomics and the Evolution of Massive Lineage-Specific Genome Rearrangement in Bilaterians

1. Thomas D Lewin
2. Isabel Jiah-Yih Liao
3. Yi-Jyun Luo

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

Genomic Signatures of Domestication in a Fungus Obligately Farmed by Leafcutter Ants

1. Caio A Leal-Dutra
2. Joel Vizueta
3. Tobias Baril
4. Pepijn W Kooij
5. Asta Rødsgaard-Jørgensen
6. Benjamin H Conlon
7. Daniel Croll
8. Jonathan Z Shik

Reviewed by Arcadia Science