Evolutionary Biology

Dominant contribution of Asgard archaea to eukaryogenesis

1. Victor Tobiasson
2. Jacob Luo
3. Yuri I Wolf
4. Eugene V Koonin

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

Seasonal and comparative evidence of adaptive gene expression in mammalian brain size plasticity

1. William R Thomas
2. Troy Richter
3. Erin T O’Neil
4. Cecilia Baldoni
5. Angelique P Corthals
6. Dominik von Elverfeldt
7. John Nieland
8. Dina KN Dechmann
9. Richard G Hunter
10. Liliana M Dávalos

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study presents valuable findings related to seasonal brain size plasticity in the Eurasian common shrew (Sorex araneus), which is an excellent model system for these studies. The evidence supporting the authors' claims is convincing. The work will be of interest to biologists working on neuroscience, plasticity, and evolution.

Reviewed by eLife

Variation in albumin glycation rates in birds suggests resistance to relative hyperglycaemia rather than conformity to the pace of life syndrome hypothesis

1. Adrián Moreno-Borrallo
2. Sarahi Jaramillo-Ortiz
3. Christine Schaeffer-Reiss
4. Benoît Quintard
5. Benjamin Rey
6. Pierre Bize
7. Vincent A Viblanc
8. Thierry Boulinier
9. Olivier Chastel
10. Jorge S Gutiérrez
11. Jose A Masero
12. Fabrice Bertile
13. François Criscuolo

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study uses extensive comparative analysis to examine the relationship between plasma glucose levels, albumin glycation levels, and diet and life history, within the framework of the "pace of life syndrome" hypothesis. The evidence that glucose is positively correlated with glycation levels and lifespan is convincing and, although there are some limitations related to data collection, they likely make the statistically significant findings more conservative. As the first extensive comparative analysis of glycation rates, life history, and glucose levels in birds, the study has the potential to be of interest to evolutionary ecologists and the aging research community more broadly.

Reviewed by eLife

Ancient biases in phenotype production drove the functional evolution of a protein family

1. Santiago Herrera-Álvarez
2. Jaeda E. J. Patton
3. Joseph W. Thornton

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

Lifestyles shape genome size and gene content in fungal pathogens

1. Anna Fijarczyk
2. Pauline Hessenauer
3. Richard C Hamelin
4. Christian R Landry

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study addresses a topic that is frequently discussed in the literature but is under-assessed, namely correlations among genome size, repeat content, and pathogenicity in fungi. Contrary to previous assertions, the authors found that repeat content is not associated with pathogenicity. Rather, pathogenic lifestyle was found to be better explained by the number of protein-coding genes, with other genomic features associated with insect association status. While the results are considered solid, confidence in the results would be deepened if the authors were to comprehensively account for potential biases stemming from the underlying data quality of the analyzed genomes.

Reviewed by eLife

Fast evolutionary turnover and overlapping variances of sex-biased gene expression patterns defy a simple binary sex-classification of somatic tissues

1. Chen Xie
2. Sven Künzel
3. Diethard Tautz

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study presents useful data on sex differences in gene expression across organs of four mice taxa. While the methods and analysis are largely sound, the strength of evidence is solid only in parts and the conclusions drawn from the results are not always appropriate.

Reviewed by eLife, Arcadia Science

On the potential for GWAS with phenotypic population means and allele-frequency data (popGWAS)

1. Markus Pfenninger

Reviewed by Peer Community in Evolutionary Biology

The general version of Hamilton’s rule

1. Matthijs van Veelen

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  Kin selection and inclusive fitness have generated significant controversy. While not entirely new, this paper reconsiders the general form of Hamilton's rule in which benefits and costs are defined as regression coefficients, with higher-order coefficients being added to accommodate non-linear interactions. The paper is a valuable contribution to the field with convincing, systematic analysis, giving clarity to long-standing debates.

Reviewed by eLife

Compensatory Evolution to DNA Replication Stress is Robust to Nutrient Availability

1. Mariana Natalino
2. Marco Fumasoni

Reviewed by Review Commons

Pronounced expression of extracellular matrix proteoglycans regulated by Wnt pathway underlies the parallel evolution of lip hypertrophy in East African cichlids

1. Nagatoshi Machii
2. Ryo Hatashima
3. Tatsuya Niwa
4. Hideki Taguchi
5. Ismael A Kimirei
6. Hillary DJ Mrosso
7. Mitsuto Aibara
8. Tatsuki Nagasawa
9. Masato Nikaido

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  Cichlid fishes have attracted attention from a wide range of biologists because of their
  extensive species diversification at the ecological and phenotypic levels. In this important study, the authors have partially revealed the mechanism behind lip thickening in cichlid fishes, which has evolved independently across three lakes in Africa. To explore this phenomenon, the authors used histological comparison, proteomics, and transcriptomics, all of which are well suited for their objectives. With compelling evidence, this contribution provides insights into parallel evolution in polygenic traits and holds significant value for the field.

Reviewed by eLife