Evolutionary Biology

An estimate of the deepest branches of the tree of life from ancient vertically evolving genes

1. Edmund RR Moody
2. Tara A Mahendrarajah
3. Nina Dombrowski
4. James W Clark
5. Celine Petitjean
6. Pierre Offre
7. Gergely J Szöllősi
8. Anja Spang
9. Tom A Williams

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This contribution is of interest to molecular phylogeny scientists in particular and to a broad public interested in early evolution in general, as it confirms the long-standing (but recently challenged) assumption that bacteria and archaea are separated by a long branch. It elegantly rebuts a recent study claiming that one of the common markers used for molecular evolution, ribosomal proteins, are actually ill-suited for deep phylogenies and that archaea and bacteria are much closer to each other than previously thought.

  (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 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

Recent Zoonotic Spillover and Tropism Shift of a Canine Coronavirus Is Associated with Relaxed Selection and Putative Loss of Function in NTD Subdomain of Spike Protein

1. Jordan D. Zehr
2. Sergei L. Kosakovsky Pond
3. Darren P. Martin
4. Kristina Ceres
5. Gary R. Whittaker
6. Jean K. Millet
7. Laura B. Goodman
8. Michael J. Stanhope

Reviewed by ScreenIT

Global Mutational Sweep of SARS-CoV-2: From Chaos to Order

1. Xin Wang
2. Mingda Hu
3. Yuan Jin
4. Boqian Wang
5. Yunxiang Zhao
6. Long Liang
7. Junjie Yue
8. Hongguang Ren

Reviewed by ScreenIT

Differential use of multiple genetic sex determination systems in divergent ecomorphs of an African crater lake cichlid

1. Hannah Munby
2. Tyler Linderoth
3. Bettina Fischer
4. Mingliu Du
5. Grégoire Vernaz
6. Alexandra M. Tyers
7. Benjamin P. Ngatunga
8. Asilatu Shechonge
9. Hubert Denise
10. Shane A. McCarthy
11. Iliana Bista
12. Eric A. Miska
13. M. Emília Santos
14. Martin J. Genner
15. George F. Turner
16. Richard Durbin

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This paper will be of interest to evolutionary biologists and geneticists, particularly those interested in the evolution of sex determination and sexual conflicts. It provides an unprecedented dataset that enables the authors to show convincingly the presence of three different Y-chromosomes segregating within a species, differential presence of the Ys among ecomorphs, and identifies candidate sex determination genes on the different Ys. Examination of the impact of genetic sex on a male fitness proxy in ecological context provides a compelling case study to explain the stable maintenance of multiple genetic sex determination systems in a species.

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

Reviewed by eLife

Regulation of sedimentation rate shapes the evolution of multicellularity in a close unicellular relative of animals

1. Omaya Dudin
2. Sébastien Wielgoss
3. Aaron M. New
4. Iñaki Ruiz-Trillo

Reviewed by Review Commons

Evolution of host-microbe cell adherence by receptor domain shuffling

1. EmilyClare P Baker
2. Ryan Sayegh
3. Kristin M Kohler
4. Wyatt Borman
5. Claire K Goodfellow
6. Eden R Brush
7. Matthew F Barber

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  Baker et al. investigates the molecular evolution in primates of one protein family, the CEACAMs, that are a recurrent target of bacterial surface adhesions at epithelial surfaces. They show that multiple members of this gene family have experienced repeated episodes of positive selection in primates, especially in the N-terminal domains that are associated with protein binding and go on to evaluate the functional consequences of these evolutionary changes.

  (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 names with the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

Open reading frame dominance indicates protein‐coding potential of RNAs

1. Yusuke Suenaga
2. Mamoru Kato
3. Momoko Nagai
4. Kazuma Nakatani
5. Hiroyuki Kogashi
6. Miho Kobatake
7. Takashi Makino

Reviewed by Review Commons

Sequence and structural conservation reveal fingerprint residues in TRP channels

1. Deny Cabezas-Bratesco
2. Francisco A Mcgee
3. Charlotte K Colenso
4. Kattina Zavala
5. Daniele Granata
6. Vincenzo Carnevale
7. Juan C Opazo
8. Sebastian E Brauchi

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  Transient Receptor Potential (TRP) cation channels, related to voltage-gated channels, appeared before plants and animals diverged in evolution and expanded in vertebrates into seven major subfamilies and took multiple essential physiological functions encoding chemical and physical information into electrical signals. In this manuscript, Deny Cabezas-Bratesco and co-workers draw from multiple sequence alignments and available structural information to identify highly conserved features in the transmembrane domains across several major TRP subfamilies in vertebrate and invertebrate animals and even in unicellular organisms. By systematically analyzing their findings, the authors propose a structural framework hinting at common mechanisms utilized by TRP channels to integrate stimuli into electric signals, which has major implications for a wide range of biological processes where TRP channels play a role.

  (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

Phylogenomic and mitogenomic data can accelerate inventorying of tropical beetles during the current biodiversity crisis

1. Michal Motyka
2. Dominik Kusy
3. Matej Bocek
4. Renata Bilkova
5. Ladislav Bocak

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This manuscript provides some clear ideas on the use of next-generation sequencing data to rapidly increase biodiversity inventories and set the basis for future research. The principal objective of this study is to demonstrate how biodiversity information for a hyperdiverse tropical group can be rapidly expanded via targeted field research and large-scale sequencing. The authors use a comprehensive sampling for a tribe of beetles with complicated morphological characters, highlight the existence of multiple undescribed taxa. The database of sequences could set a benchmark for the spatiotemporal evaluation of biodiversity, would support evidence-based conservation planning, and would provide a robust framework for systematic, biogeographic, and evolutionary studies.

  (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 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

δ1 variant of SARS-COV-2 acquires spike V1176F and yields a highly mutated subvariant in Europe

1. Xiang-Jiao Yang

Reviewed by ScreenIT