Evolutionary Biology

On the nature of the earliest known lifeforms

1. Dheeraj Kanaparthi
2. Frances Westall
3. Marko Lampe
4. Baoli Zhu
5. Thomas Boesen
6. Bettina Scheu
7. Andreas Klingl
8. Petra Schwille
9. Tillmann Lueders

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This provocative manuscript presents important comparisons of the morphologies of Archaean bacterial microfossils to those of microbes transformed under environmental conditions that mimic those present on Earth during the same Eon. The evidence in support of the conclusions is solid. The authors' environmental condition selection for their experiment is justified.

Reviewed by eLife

Recurrent Evolutionary Innovations in Rodent and Primate Schlafen Genes

1. Joris Mordier
2. Marine Fraisse
3. Michel Cohen-Tannoudji
4. Antoine Molaro

Reviewed by Review Commons

An evolutionarily conserved Hox-Gbx segmentation code in the rice coral Montipora capitata

1. Shuonan He
2. Emma Rangel-Huerta
3. Eric Hill
4. Lacey Ellington
5. Shiyuan (Cynthia) Chen
6. Sofia Robb
7. Eva Majerová
8. Crawford Drury
9. Matthew C Gibson

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  The authors studied the development of mesentery borders in the rice coral Montipora, a new experimental system, to complement existing data from the sea anemone Nematostella. They make a solid case that in Montipora, there is a sequence of Hox-Gbx genes whose staggered expression in the unsegmented larva is suggestive of their role in subdividing the gastric cavity into repeated units bordered by mesenteries, as in the sea anemone Nematostella. Pharmacological experiments also point to the involvement of the BMP pathway in this process, but additional experiments validating this are necessary. This is a valuable contribution to the field of cnidarian evolution, suggesting that BMP- and "Hox-Gbx code"-dependent patterning of the directive axis was ancestral for Anthozoa.

Reviewed by eLife

Template switching during DNA replication is a prevalent source of adaptive gene amplification

1. Julie N Chuong
2. Nadav Ben Nun
3. Ina Suresh
4. Julia Cano Matthews
5. Titir De
6. Grace Avecilla
7. Farah Abdul-Rahman
8. Nathan Brandt
9. Yoav Ram
10. David Gresham

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study provides important new insights into the contributions of local DNA features to the complex molecular mechanisms and dynamics of copy number variation (CNV) formation during adaptive evolution. While limited to a single CNV of interest, the study is well-designed and carefully controlled, presenting compelling evidence that supports the conclusions. This work will be of general interest to those studying genome architecture and evolution from yeast biologists to cancer researchers.

Reviewed by eLife

Genotypic and phenotypic consequences of domestication in dogs

1. Sweetalana
2. Shirin Nataneli
3. Shengmiao Huang
4. Jazlyn A Mooney
5. Zachary A Szpiech

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

Performance and Robustness of Parameter Estimation from Phylogenetic Trees Using Neural Networks

1. Tianjian Qin
2. Koen J. van Benthem
3. Luis Valente
4. Rampal S. Etienne

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

Adaptive cellular evolution in the intestinal tracts of hyperdiverse African cichlid fishes

1. Antoine Fages
2. Maëva Luxey
3. Fabrizia Ronco
4. Charlotte E.T. Huyghe
5. P. Navaneeth Krishna Menon
6. Adrian Indermaur
7. Walter Salzburger
8. Patrick Tschopp

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

The emergence and evolution of gene expression in genome regions replete with regulatory motifs

1. Timothy Fuqua
2. Yiqiao Sun
3. Andreas Wagner

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study explores the relationship between the sequence of prokaryotic promoter elements and their activity using mutagenesis to generate thousands of mutant sequences. The evidence supporting these findings is convincing. This work will appeal to those interested in bacterial genetics, genome evolution, and gene regulation.

Reviewed by eLife

In silico evolution of globular protein folds from random sequences

1. Harutyun Sahakyan
2. Sanasar G. Babajanyan
3. Yuri I. Wolf
4. Eugene V. Koonin

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

First evidence for the evolution of host manipulation by tumors during the long-term vertical transmission of tumor cells in Hydra oligactis

1. Justine Boutry
2. Océane Rieu
3. Lena Guimard
4. Jordan Meliani
5. Aurora M Nedelcu
6. Sophie Tissot
7. Nikita Stepanskyy
8. Beata Ujvari
9. Rodrigo Hamede
10. Antoine M Dujon
11. Jácint Tökölyi
12. Fréderic Thomas

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This interesting study explores whether tumor cells can manipulate their Hydra hosts, and includes important findings on the consequences for the fitness of the host Hydra. The evidence supporting these findings is convincing. The work will be of broad interest to many fields including development biology, evolutionary biology and tumor biology.

Reviewed by eLife