Evolutionary Biology

Divergent functions of two clades of flavodoxin in diatoms mitigate oxidative stress and iron limitation

1. Shiri Graff van Creveld
2. Sacha N Coesel
3. Stephen Blaskowski
4. Ryan D Groussman
5. Megan J Schatz
6. E Virginia Armbrust

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study presents valuable findings regarding the functional diversification of flavodoxins from diatoms, a protein initially described as an Fe-sparing substitute for ferredoxin in Fe-poor open ocean environments. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is solid, although the study could be strengthened by using a wider gradient of oxidative stress in the experiments and using Fe limitation methodology, which allows more certain differentiation between a low Fe and oxidative stress response.

Reviewed by eLife

Fight not flight: parasites drive the bacterial evolution of resistance, not avoidance

1. Michael Blazanin
2. Jeremy Moore
3. Sydney Olsen
4. Michael Travisano

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

Selection on many loci drove the origin and spread of a key innovation

1. Sean Stankowski
2. Zuzanna B. Zagrodzka
3. Martin D. Garlovsky
4. Arka Pal
5. Daria Shipilina
6. Diego Garcia Castillo
7. Alan Le Moan
8. Erica Leder
9. James Reeve
10. Kerstin Johannesson
11. Anja M. Westram
12. Roger K. Butlin

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

New hypotheses of cell type diversity and novelty from orthology-driven comparative single cell and nuclei transcriptomics in echinoderms

1. Anne Meyer
2. Carolyn Ku
3. William L Hatleberg
4. Cheryl A Telmer
5. Veronica Hinman

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study is an excellent example of how one can use high-throughput technologies to address animal evolution from a cell-type perspective. The authors present a beautiful analysis of single-nucleus RNA-seq data from three embryonic stages in a sea star; this is the first single-cell data from this large group of echinoderms and the first single-nucleus transcriptomic study in any echinoderm. The authors demonstrate the presence of unique as well as previously unnoticed homologous cell types between a sea star and a sea urchin, discovery very intriguing to echinoderm developmental biologists, which will also be of great interest to scientists in the broad fields of evolution and development.

Reviewed by eLife

Within-host diversity improves phylogenetic and transmission reconstruction of SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks

1. Arturo Torres Ortiz
2. Michelle Kendall
3. Nathaniel Storey
4. James Hatcher
5. Helen Dunn
6. Sunando Roy
7. Rachel Williams
8. Charlotte Williams
9. Richard A Goldstein
10. Xavier Didelot
11. Kathryn Harris
12. Judith Breuer
13. Louis Grandjean

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This valuable study presents a novel and theoretically interesting model to account for viral diversity within hosts in evolutionary and genomic analyses of pathogens. The simulation results presented are solid, although there are some aspects of the methodology that require further investigation in order to establish their validity. The application to SARS-CoV-2 shows promise, but would benefit from further evaluation.

Reviewed by eLife

Evolution of an extreme hemoglobin phenotype contributed to the sub-Arctic specialization of extinct Steller’s sea cows

1. Anthony V Signore
2. Phillip R Morrison
3. Colin J Brauner
4. Angela Fago
5. Roy E Weber
6. Kevin L Campbell

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important study functionally characterizes hemoglobin from Steller's sea cow, a cold-water adapted sirenian that went extinct ~250 years ago. Using ancestral sequence reconstruction, site-directed mutagenesis and biochemical assays to compare Steller's hemoglobin to those from (sub)tropical extant sea cows (all of which are proficient divers despite lacking massive muscle oxygen storage), the authors build a solid case for the molecular basis of cold adaptation, centered around an increased solubility and higher oxygen carrying capacity. Remarkably, a single amino acid replacement would explain most of the distinctive functional features of this hemoglobin, which include a hitherto unknown resistance to DPG. Overall, this work will be of interest to evolutionary biologists, physiologists, and biochemists, as well as an enjoyable and informative read for the general public.

Reviewed by eLife

Evidence for adolescent length growth spurts in bonobos and other primates highlights the importance of scaling laws

1. Andreas Berghaenel
2. Jeroen MG Stevens
3. Gottfried Hohmann
4. Tobias Deschner
5. Verena Behringer

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This valuable paper sheds new light on the growth trajectory of bonobos (Pan paniscus), with explicit contributions to discussions of the exclusivity of certain aspects of growth in modern humans, most specifically with respect to components of the adolescent growth spurt, which may be less human-specific among primates than presumed to this point. The results are solid, based on the largest sample ever considered in the study of bonobo growth and include both morphometric and endocrinological data. This work will be of interest to human evolutionary biologists, primatologists, and researchers studying the ontogeny and evolution of growth and development in general.

Reviewed by eLife

Thermal phenotypic plasticity of pre- and post-copulatory male harm buffers sexual conflict in wild Drosophila melanogaster

1. Claudia Londoño-Nieto
2. Roberto García-Roa
3. Clara Garcia-Co
4. Paula González
5. Pau Carazo

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study has important implications for the impact of sexual conflict on population viability under different temperatures. The authors propose that male harm to females in sexual conflict can be reduced as a function of temperature within the optimal reproductive range of a species. The evidence for this proposal is currently incomplete because there is methodological detail that needs to be further clarified. The results could have implications for the likelihood of the evolutionary rescue of species facing the climate crisis.

Reviewed by eLife

Widespread mermithid nematode parasitism of Cretaceous insects

1. Cihang Luo
2. George O Poinar
3. Chunpeng Xu
4. De Zhuo
5. Edmund A Jarzembowski
6. Bo Wang

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important study greatly expands our knowledge of the fossil record of Mermithid nematodes, modern members of which are ecologically important parasitoids of arthropods, annelids and mollusks today. The most important finding, convincingly presented, is that mermithids parasitized a number of insect clades in the Cretaceous that they are not known to infect today or in Cenozoic amber. The evidence for a shift in exploited hosts from heterometabolous insects in the Cretaceous to holometabolous ones in the Miocene is solid but could be made exceptional by adding a small quantitative analysis with confidence intervals and bar plots from the data already compiled in the supplementary material; potential collection bias should be addressed as well.

Reviewed by eLife

Linking genotypic and phenotypic changes in the E. coli long-term evolution experiment using metabolomics

1. John S Favate
2. Kyle S Skalenko
3. Eric Chiles
4. Xiaoyang Su
5. Srujana Samhita Yadavalli
6. Premal Shah

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study presents convincing evidence that metabolite levels in Escherichia coli bacteria from a long-term evolution experiment have changed in consistent ways, which in turn can be explained by recurrent mutations in regulatory genes that affect enzyme expression levels. The use of high-resolution mass spectrometry measuring bulk metabolite levels, in combination with existing gene expression and DNA sequencing datasets provides valuable information linking changes in an organism's genome, transcriptome, and metabolome.

Reviewed by eLife