Evolutionary Biology

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

Sweepstakes reproductive success via pervasive and recurrent selective sweeps

1. Einar Árnason
2. Jere Koskela
3. Katrín Halldórsdóttir
4. Bjarki Eldon

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  Analysis of molecular data from genome sequencing provides crucial information on the diversity of biological and evolutionary processes that shape genetic diversity. However, the models of genetic evolution used to make these inferences sometimes oversimplify important aspects of species biology. This study shows that accounting for high variance in reproductive success in models can better explain the genetic diversity of an extremely fecund marine species, the Atlantic cod. The manuscript is scientifically sound and provides careful statistical analyses of alternative evolutionary models. It concludes that pervasive selection, rather than demographic changes or sweepstakes reproduction, is one of the main drivers of genetic diversity in Atlantic cod.

  (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 #2 and Reviewer #3 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

Evolution of genome fragility enables microbial division of labor

1. Enrico Sandro Colizzi
2. Bram van Dijk
3. Roeland M H Merks
4. Daniel E Rozen
5. Renske M A Vroomans

Reviewed by Review Commons

Desiccation resistance differences in Drosophila species can be largely explained by variations in cuticular hydrocarbons

1. Zinan Wang
2. Joseph P Receveur
3. Jian Pu
4. Haosu Cong
5. Cole Richards
6. Muxuan Liang
7. Henry Chung

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This paper is an extensive analysis of the underlying basis of desiccation resistance in 50 Drosophila species from diverse habitats. The work suggests that the longer methyl-branched alkanes (mbCHC) of the cuticular hydrocarbons are critical for this resistance. The study, which informs on the evolution of desiccation resistance in flies, is well done, although the main hypothesis is currently only partially supported by coating experiments, which presently lack controls and would be greatly strengthened by "replacement" experiments to add mbCHCs to flies without CHCs. The work is of relevance to evolutionary biologists in general.

  (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. The reviewers remained anonymous to the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

Evolutionary rescue of phosphomannomutase deficiency in yeast models of human disease

1. Ryan C Vignogna
2. Mariateresa Allocca
3. Maria Monticelli
4. Joy W Norris
5. Richard Steet
6. Ethan O Perlstein
7. Giuseppina Andreotti
8. Gregory I Lang

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  Vignogna et al. used yeast genetics, experimental evolution and biochemistry to investigate human congenital disorders of glycosylation, often caused by mutations in PMM2. They took advantage of the observation that the budding yeast gene SEC53 is almost identical to human PMM2, and used experimental evolution to find interactors of SEC53/PMM2. Mutations in genes corresponding to other human CDG genes, including PGM1, were overrepresented. The mechanisms of how reduced pgm1 activity could compensate for defects of sec53 are not yet clear.

  (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 #2 and Reviewer #3 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife