Evolutionary Biology

Parasite defensive limb movements enhance acoustic signal attraction in male little torrent frogs

1. Longhui Zhao
2. Jichao Wang
3. Haodi Zhang
4. Tongliang Wang
5. Yue Yang
6. Yezhong Tang
7. Wouter Halfwerk
8. Jianguo Cui

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  Zhao et al. present an interesting proposal for the evolution of complex multimodal signals based on the analysis of the mating display of small torrent frogs. Combining observational and experimental evidence, they suggest that male limb movements, which are used to swat away blood-sucking midges, have become attractive to female frogs, enhancing the acoustic mating call of these males.

  (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 agreed to share their name with the authors.

Reviewed by eLife

Broad-scale variation in human genetic diversity levels is predicted by purifying selection on coding and non-coding elements

1. David A Murphy
2. Eyal Elyashiv
3. Guy Amster
4. Guy Sella

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This paper uses state-of-the-art methods and the latest data to answer the question of whether variation in polymorphism levels along the human genome is mostly driven by linked purifying selection or selective sweeps. It makes a very strong case for the former. The paper is exceptionally well written, and should be of interest to anyone wishing to understand patterns of polymorphism.

  (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

Digital restoration of the pectoral girdles of two Early Cretaceous birds and implications for early-flight evolution

1. Shiying Wang
2. Yubo Ma
3. Qian Wu
4. Min Wang
5. Dongyu Hu
6. Corwin Sullivan
7. Xing Xu

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  The authors provide new 3D fossil findings in Sapeornis, an avialan which lived during the early Cretaceous period, a key node in our understanding of the evolution of avian flight. The functional reconstruction of two critical skeletal elements of the avian flight apparatus, the scapula and coracoid, enable the authors to hypothesize how the evolution of the scapula and coracoid enabled the modern avian wing stroke. The new 3D morphological reconstruction enables future integrative studies of Sapeornis flight performance based on biomechanical, muscle physiological and aerodynamic principles and is thus a key building block to inform our general understanding of the evolution of avian flight.

  (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 and Reviewer #2 agreed to share their names with the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

Genome size evolution in the diverse insect order Trichoptera

1. Jacqueline Heckenhauer
2. Paul B Frandsen
3. John S Sproul
4. Zheng Li
5. Juraj Paule
6. Amanda M Larracuente
7. Peter J Maughan
8. Michael S Barker
9. Julio V Schneider
10. Russell J Stewart
11. Steffen U Pauls

Reviewed by GigaScience

The germline mutational process in rhesus macaque and its implications for phylogenetic dating

1. Lucie A Bergeron
2. Søren Besenbacher
3. Jaco Bakker
4. Jiao Zheng
5. Panyi Li
6. George Pacheco
7. Mikkel-Holger S Sinding
8. Maria Kamilari
9. M Thomas P Gilbert
10. Mikkel H Schierup
11. Guojie Zhang

Reviewed by GigaScience

GADMA: Genetic algorithm for inferring demographic history of multiple populations from allele frequency spectrum data

1. Ekaterina Noskova
2. Vladimir Ulyantsev
3. Klaus-Peter Koepfli
4. Stephen J O’Brien
5. Pavel Dobrynin

Reviewed by GigaScience

Inferring putative ancient whole-genome duplications in the 1000 Plants (1KP) initiative: access to gene family phylogenies and age distributions

1. Zheng Li
2. Michael S Barker

Reviewed by GigaScience

RepeatFiller newly identifies megabases of aligning repetitive sequences and improves annotations of conserved non-exonic elements

1. Ekaterina Osipova
2. Nikolai Hecker
3. Michael Hiller

Reviewed by GigaScience

Real-time DNA barcoding in a rainforest using nanopore sequencing: opportunities for rapid biodiversity assessments and local capacity building

1. Aaron Pomerantz
2. Nicolás Peñafiel
3. Alejandro Arteaga
4. Lucas Bustamante
5. Frank Pichardo
6. Luis A Coloma
7. César L Barrio-Amorós
8. David Salazar-Valenzuela
9. Stefan Prost

Reviewed by GigaScience

Innovative assembly strategy contributes to the understanding of evolution and conservation genetics of the critically endangered Solenodon paradoxus from the island of Hispaniola

1. Kirill Grigorev
2. Sergey Kliver
3. Pavel Dobrynin
4. Aleksey Komissarov
5. Walter Wolfsberger
6. Ksenia Krasheninnikova
7. Yashira M. Afanador-Hernández
8. Liz A. Paulino
9. Rosanna Carreras
10. Luis E. Rodríguez
11. Adrell Núñez
12. Filipe Silva
13. J. David Hernández-Martich
14. Audrey J. Majeske
15. Agostinho Antunes
16. Alfred L. Roca
17. Stephen J. O’Brien
18. Juan Carlos Martinez-Cruzado
19. Taras K. Oleksyk

Reviewed by GigaScience