Evolutionary Biology

Ventral Morphology and Ecological Implications of Cindarella eucalla (Artiopoda, Xandarellida) from Chengjiang Biota, China

1. Maoyin Zhang
2. Yu Liu
3. Huijuan Mai
4. Michel Schmidt
5. Xianguang Hou

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  The study presents a very well-illustrated specimens of the artiopodan Cindarella eucalla from the Chengjiang Biota, using computer tomography (CT) scanning to illustrate multiple specimens with preserved appendages, a rarity in artiopodans. The description of these fossils is important for expanding our understanding of this taxon and its relatives. The imaging and morphological description are followed by a discussion of how this morphology relates to other Cambrian arthropods and its potential ecological function. The evidence provided in this section about resulting function and ecology is presently incomplete and the conclusions are put forward too strongly. This assessment could be improved if the work is revised with more careful wording and additional data.

Reviewed by eLife

Functional Diversification of Gene Duplicates under the Constraint of Protein Structure

1. Kangning Guo
2. Yuqing Yang
3. Tingting You
4. Kangli Zhu

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

Opening the species box: what parsimonious microscopic models of speciation have to say about macroevolution

1. Élisa Couvert
2. François Bienvenu
3. Jean-Jil Duchamps
4. Adélie Erard
5. Verónica Miró Pina
6. Emmanuel Schertzer
7. Amaury Lambert

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

Evolutionary trends in the emergence of skeletal cell types

1. Amor Damatac
2. Sara Koska
3. Kristian K Ullrich
4. Tomislav Domazet-Lošo
5. Alexander Klimovich
6. Markéta Kaucká

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

Extreme positive epistasis for fitness in monosomic yeast strains

1. Hanna Tutaj
2. Katarzyna Tomala
3. Adrian Pirog
4. Marzena Marszałek
5. Ryszard Korona

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study offers important insights into the generation and maintenance of monosomic yeast lines and is, to our knowledge, the first to evaluate gene expression in yeast monosomies. The research introduces an innovative method to assess epistasis between genes on the same chromosome, providing solid evidence for positive epistatic interactions affecting fitness. Although the authors have substantially improved the methodology and interpretation during revision, questions regarding the interpretation of the transcriptome data have not been completely addressed.

Reviewed by eLife

The transcriptome of the mosquito host Anopheles gambiae upon infection by different selected lines of the microsporidian parasite Vavraia culicis

1. Luís M. Silva

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

A direct experimental test of Ohno’s hypothesis

1. Ljiljana Mihajlovic
2. Bharat Ravi Iyengar
3. Florian Baier
4. Içvara Barbier
5. Justyna Iwaszkiewicz
6. Vincent Zoete
7. Andreas Wagner
8. Yolanda Schaerli

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This fundamental study uses a creative experimental system to directly test Ohno's hypothesis, which describes how and why new genes might evolve by duplication of existing ones. In agreement with existing criticism of Ohno's original idea, the authors present compelling evidence that having two gene copies does not speed up the evolution of a new function as posited by Ohno, but instead leads to the rapid inactivation of one of the copies through the accumulation of mostly deleterious mutations. These findings will be of broad interest to evolutionary biologists and geneticists.

Reviewed by eLife, preLights

The impact of social complexity on the efficacy of natural selection in termites

1. Camille Roux
2. Alice Ha
3. Arthur Weyna
4. Morgan Lode
5. Jonathan Romiguier

Reviewed by Peer Community in Evolutionary Biology

The evolutionary history of the ancient weevil family Belidae (Coleoptera: Curculionoidea) reveals the marks of Gondwana breakup and major floristic turnovers, including the rise of angiosperms

1. Xuankun Li
2. Adriana E Marvaldi
3. Rolf G Oberprieler
4. Dave Clarke
5. Brian D Farrell
6. Andrea Sequeira
7. M Silvia Ferrer
8. Charles O'Brien
9. Shayla Salzman
10. Seunggwan Shin
11. William Tang
12. Duane D McKenna

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  Through anchored phylogenomic analyses, this important study offers fresh insights into the evolutionary history of the plant diet and geographic distribution of Belidae weevil beetles. Employing robust methodological approaches, the authors propose that certain belid lineages have maintained a continuous association with Araucaria hosts since the Mesozoic era. Although the biogeographical analysis is somewhat limited by uncertainties in vicariance explanations, this convincing study enhances our understanding of Belidae's evolutionary dynamics and provides new perspectives on ancient community ecology.

Reviewed by eLife

Experimental evolution of evolvability

1. Michael Barnett
2. Lena Meister
3. Paul B. Rainey

Reviewed by Arcadia Science