Evolutionary Biology

Structural screens identify candidate human homologs of insect chemoreceptors and cryptic Drosophila gustatory receptor-like proteins

1. Richard Benton
2. Nathaniel J Himmel

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  Overall, this manuscript provides fundamental advances to our understanding of the ancestry of insect gustatory and olfactory receptors, by identifying new members of these two related ion channel families in distant species. The approaches to compare protein structure are exceptional and use cutting-edge techniques, going beyond the commonly used approaches. The authors suggest that the family of odorant and gustatory receptors have a common origin and share structural homology in very distant organisms, although the possibility of convergent evolution still exists. This work will serve as a reference for scientists working on insect olfaction and for those working on molecular evolution.

Reviewed by eLife

Comparing the evolutionary dynamics of predominant SARS-CoV-2 virus lineages co-circulating in Mexico

1. Hugo G Castelán-Sánchez
2. Luis Delaye
3. Rhys PD Inward
4. Simon Dellicour
5. Bernardo Gutierrez
6. Natalia Martinez de la Vina
7. Celia Boukadida
8. Oliver G Pybus
9. Guillermo de Anda Jáuregui
10. Plinio Guzmán
11. Marisol Flores-Garrido
12. Óscar Fontanelli
13. Maribel Hernández Rosales
14. Amilcar Meneses
15. Gabriela Olmedo-Alvarez
16. Alfredo Heriberto Herrera-Estrella
17. Alejandro Sánchez-Flores
18. José Esteban Muñoz-Medina
19. Andreu Comas-García
20. Bruno Gómez-Gil
21. Selene Zárate
22. Blanca Taboada
23. Susana López
24. Carlos F Arias
25. Moritz UG Kraemer
26. Antonio Lazcano
27. Marina Escalera Zamudio

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  The authors document an in-depth analysis of introduction patterns of 5 variant waves in Mexico. This is an important analysis and dataset since the genomic epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 in Mexico is generally understudied, and this paper contributes important missing information. The phylogenetic analyses are solid and well-presented, but the lack of detail regarding the collection of samples across Mexican states makes it difficult to evaluate conclusions about the relationship between observed viral lineages and local case counts. Additionally, in its current form, the manuscript is mostly descriptive, without clear hypotheses tested or discussion of implications.

Reviewed by eLife

Complex plumages spur rapid color diversification in kingfishers (Aves: Alcedinidae)

1. Chad M Eliason
2. Jenna M McCullough
3. Shannon J Hackett
4. Michael J Andersen

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important work advances our understanding of the factors that affect the speed of colour evolution in birds and the resulting diversification patterns. It provides compelling evidence that more complex plumage coloration can lead to rapid colour evolution in kingfishers, and could pave the way for more comprehensive analyses that fully embrace the multidimensional nature of colour variation. Hence, the results will be of broad interest to ornithologists and evolutionary biologists in general, once the authors have streamlined the theoretical framework and explained the novel methodological approaches in more detail.

Reviewed by eLife

Coevolutionary dynamics via adaptive feedback in collective-risk social dilemma game

1. Linjie Liu
2. Xiaojie Chen
3. Attila Szolnoki

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  The paper provides a valuable, in-depth mathematical analysis of the coevolutionary dynamics resulting from a coupling of players' strategies and (collective) risk, as well as illustrative numerical simulations of the system's trajectories for different starting conditions. It is therefore a solid contribution to our understanding of how cooperation can be sustained when there is feedback between individual decisions and the global risk of disaster. This paper will be of interest to scientists working on mathematical biology/ecology, and more generally various aspects of human decision-making, the interplay between human decisions and the environment, and public goods provision.

Reviewed by eLife

Paths to adaptation under fluctuating nitrogen starvation: The spectrum of adaptive mutations in Saccharomyces cerevisiae is shaped by transposons and microhomology-mediated recombination

1. Michelle Hays
2. Katja Schwartz
3. Danica T. Schmidtke
4. Dimitra Aggeli
5. Gavin Sherlock

Reviewed by Review Commons

Accumulated metagenomic studies reveal recent migration, whole genome evolution, and undiscovered diversity of orthomyxoviruses

1. Gytis Dudas
2. Joshua Batson

Reviewed by Review Commons

Epidermal threads reveal the origin of hagfish slime

1. Yu Zeng
2. David C Plachetzki
3. Kristen Nieders
4. Hannah Campbell
5. Marissa Cartee
6. M Sabrina Pankey
7. Kennedy Guillen
8. Douglas Fudge

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  The study is a careful investigation of the physical properties of hagfish slime and the underlying cellular framework that enables this extraordinary evolutionary innovation. It is a careful and detailed measurement with clear images. However, there is a need for a better contextualizing of the findings as a broader biological question, including the evolution of functional novelty, the adaptive processes, and the links between genetic and phenotypic evolution. Furthermore, the conclusions on the evolutionary origins and underlying genetics of hagfish slime based on comparative transcriptomic data need to be better supported.

Reviewed by eLife

An oligogenic architecture underlying ecological and reproductive divergence in sympatric populations

1. Dušica Briševac
2. Carolina M Peralta
3. Tobias S Kaiser

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This potentially important article identifies an apparent oligogenic architecture for an ecologically relevant trait, the circalunar reproduction of marine midges, which contributes to assortative mating, is likely under divergent selection, and supports reproductive isolation in sympathy. A claim for a causal role of chromosomal inversions in this system is made, but the support for this claim is incomplete.

Reviewed by eLife

The landscape of antibody binding affinity in SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.1 evolution

1. Alief Moulana
2. Thomas Dupic
3. Angela M Phillips
4. Jeffrey Chang
5. Anne A Roffler
6. Allison J Greaney
7. Tyler N Starr
8. Jesse D Bloom
9. Michael M Desai

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This work provides important new insights into the mutational pathways of SARS-CoV-2 to achieve antibody escape, as well as how these pathways are shaped by epistasis. The evidence supporting the conclusions is compelling based on rigorous analyses of data from a high-throughput binding assay. The study is important for evolutionary medicine and biology and relevant for human health.

Reviewed by eLife

The deep-rooted origin of disulfide-rich spider venom toxins

1. Naeem Yusuf Shaikh
2. Kartik Sunagar

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This is an important survey of disulfide-rich peptides (DRPs), which comprise a large fraction of the most functionally important components of spider venom. While spider DRPs were thought to have evolved independently numerous times throughout the spider tree of life, the authors make a solid case for the idea that they all stem from a single common ancestral protein. The study makes a significant advance towards formalizing the diversity of spider venoms, which will be of interest both to scientists working on protein evolution and to those working on functional venomics.

Reviewed by eLife