Evolutionary Biology

Mammalian forelimb evolution is driven by uneven proximal-to-distal morphological diversity

1. Priscila S Rothier
2. Anne-Claire Fabre
3. Julien Clavel
4. Roger BJ Benson
5. Anthony Herrel

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study reports an interesting analysis of evolutionary variation in forelimb/hand bone shapes in relation to functional and developmental variation along the proximo-distal axis. The authors found expected and compelling patterns of evolutionary shape variation along the proximo-distal axis but less expected, yet equally compelling, patterns of shape integration. This paper will be of interest to researchers working on macroevolutionary patterns and sources of morphological diversity.

Reviewed by eLife

Environmental pH signals the release of monosaccharides from cell wall in coral symbiotic alga

1. Yuu Ishii
2. Hironori Ishii
3. Takeshi Kuroha
4. Ryusuke Yokoyama
5. Ryusaku Deguchi
6. Kazuhiko Nishitani
7. Jun Minagawa
8. Masakado Kawata
9. Shunichi Takahashi
10. Shinichiro Maruyama

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  The manuscript makes a fundamental contribution to our understanding of sugar release by symbiotic dinoflagellates, and is of broad interest for the fields of ecology, marine biology, and cell biology. The experiments, which combine algal culture with targeted metabolomics, transcriptomics and the application of inhibitors, provide substantial, though not entirely complete evidence for an acidic environment mimicking conditions reported for the intracellular organelle that hosts the symbiotic algae, leading to upregulation of algal cellulases, which in turn degrade the algal cell wall and thereby releasing glucose and galactose that can be used as a source of food by the coral host. This is a new idea and could significantly contribute to our understanding of photosymbiosis.

Reviewed by eLife

A toxin-antidote selfish element increases fitness of its host

1. Lijiang Long
2. Wen Xu
3. Francisco Valencia
4. Annalise B Paaby
5. Patrick T McGrath

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study addresses a fundamental question about the origin and evolution of selfish genetic elements, focusing on the paradoxical abundance of toxin-antidote elements in selfing Caenorhabditis species. The authors propose for the C. elegans peel-1 zeel-1 locus fitness advantages; if these the findings can be supported with additional data, they will be of considerable interest to the field due to their wider implications for the evolution of such systems.

Reviewed by eLife

Little skate genome provides insights into genetic programs essential for limb-based locomotion

1. DongAhn Yoo
2. Junhee Park
3. Chul Lee
4. Injun Song
5. Young Ho Lee
6. Tery Yun
7. Hyemin Lee
8. Adriana Heguy
9. Jae Yong Han
10. Jeremy S Dasen
11. Heebal Kim
12. Myungin Baek

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This manuscript provides an improved version of the little skate genome, which will be of great interest to the field of comparative genomics and evolutionary biology. The authors use the genome to compare gene expression and chromatin accessibility profiles in motor neurons of the little skate and other species (mouse, chicken), aiming to predict conserved and divergent gene regulatory mechanisms underlying motor neuron development. While the manuscript contributes a valuable resource to the field, more rigorous analyses and experimental validation are needed to support the major claims of this study.

Reviewed by eLife

The molecular basis of socially induced egg-size plasticity in honey bees

1. Bin Han
2. Qiaohong Wei
3. Esmaeil Amiri
4. Han Hu
5. Lifeng Meng
6. Micheline K Strand
7. David R Tarpy
8. Shufa Xu
9. Jianke Li
10. Olav Rueppell

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study investigates factors that control egg size plasticity in a social insect, the honey bee Apis mellifera. It finds that honey bee queens vary egg size in response to size of their colony, and that the gene Rho1 is involved in egg-size determination. These findings inform our understanding of maternal control over egg size, a key form of maternal investment. The work is relevant to colleagues studying reproduction and social insects.

Reviewed by eLife

Complementary evolution of coding and noncoding sequence underlies mammalian hairlessness

1. Amanda Kowalczyk
2. Maria Chikina
3. Nathan Clark

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  Several mammal species, including dolphins, have evolved to be relatively "hairless". Kowalczyk and colleagues scan the genomes of multiple species to identify genomic regions that appear to have evolved at a faster or slower evolutionary rate along hairless lineages. They identify a number of protein-coding genes as well as noncoding regions that might explain how hairlessness evolved in mammals. This study is of interest to those investigating the development of the skin and its appendages as well as evolutionary biologists, especially those investigating instances of convergent evolution and those developing phylogenomic methods for genome comparisons.

Reviewed by eLife

Peripheral and central employment of acid-sensing ion channels during early bilaterian evolution

1. Josep Martí-Solans
2. Aina Børve
3. Paul Bump
4. Andreas Hejnol
5. Timothy Lynagh

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This work examines the evolutionary origins of acid-sensing ion channels (ASICs), a class of pH-sensing receptors expressed throughout the brain and body. By combining analysis of sequences, functional measurements, and measures of tissue distribution, the authors provide solid evidence that ASICs existed far earlier than previously believed. The present data indicate that ASICs emerged after the split between bilaterians (organisms with two-fold symmetry) and Cnidaria (jellyfish, anemones, corals, etc.), approximately 680 million years ago. This evolutionary and functional analysis of ASIC channels across bilaterian lineages provides relevant information about the evolution of nervous and sensory systems.

Reviewed by eLife

Parallel evolution of reduced cancer risk and tumor suppressor duplications in Xenarthra

1. Juan Manuel Vazquez
2. Maria T Pena
3. Baaqeyah Muhammad
4. Morgan Kraft
5. Linda B Adams
6. Vincent J Lynch

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment:

  This study is a useful extension of previous work on the relationship between body size and cancer risk and the mechanisms by which large-bodied mammals reduce their cancer risk. Through solid analyses of the genomes and several aspects of the cell biology of sloths, armadillos and their relatives, the study explores whether the evolution of large body size in their relatives (some extinct) was correlated with genomic changes such as the duplication of tumor suppressor genes, experimentally demonstrating that cells of Xenarthrans (sloths, armadillos, anteaters) are exceptionally sensitive to DNA damage. The study concerns a topic of great interest and contributes to our understanding of how cancer risk has evolved in mammals.

  (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

Convergent evolution and horizontal gene transfer in Arctic Ocean microalgae

1. Richard G Dorrell
2. Alan Kuo
3. Zoltan Füssy
4. Elisabeth H Richardson
5. Asaf Salamov
6. Nikola Zarevski
7. Nastasia J Freyria
8. Federico M Ibarbalz
9. Jerry Jenkins
10. Juan Jose Pierella Karlusich
11. Andrei Stecca Steindorff
12. Robyn E Edgar
13. Lori Handley
14. Kathleen Lail
15. Anna Lipzen
16. Vincent Lombard
17. John McFarlane
18. Charlotte Nef
19. Anna MG Novák Vanclová
20. Yi Peng
21. Chris Plott
22. Marianne Potvin
23. Fabio Rocha Jimenez Vieira
24. Kerrie Barry
25. Colomban de Vargas
26. Bernard Henrissat
27. Eric Pelletier
28. Jeremy Schmutz
29. Patrick Wincker
30. Joel B Dacks
31. Chris Bowler
32. Igor V Grigoriev
33. Connie Lovejoy

Reviewed by Review Commons

Selection and the direction of phenotypic evolution

1. François Mallard
2. Bruno Afonso
3. Henrique Teotónio

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This is a potentially important paper that takes advantage of an unusually comprehensive evolutionary genetic dataset to tease apart the relationship between genetic variation and phenotypic divergence over the ~medium term (50 generations). The questions addressed have broad relevance across evolution, conservation, and agricultural fields, and this paper will particularly appeal to evolutionary biologists. Nonetheless, the strength of evidence is incomplete for the major results and conclusions reported.

Reviewed by eLife