Evolutionary Biology

Heterozygosity at a conserved candidate sex determination locus is associated with female development in the clonal raider ant (Ooceraea biroi)

1. Kip D Lacy
2. Jina Lee
3. Kathryn Rozen-Gagnon
4. Wei Wang
5. Thomas S Carroll
6. Daniel JC Kronauer

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study provides valuable insights into the evolutionary conservation of sex determination mechanisms in ants by identifying a candidate sex-determining region in a parthenogenetic species. It uses solid, well-executed genomic analyses based on differences in heterozygosity between females and diploid males. While the candidate locus awaits functional validation in this species, the study provides convincing support for the ancient origin of a non-coding locus implicated in sex determination.

Reviewed by eLife

The Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex pangenome is small and shaped by sub-lineage-specific regions of difference

1. Mahboobeh Behruznia
2. Maximillian Marin
3. Daniel J Whiley
4. Maha Reda Farhat
5. Jonathan C Thomas
6. Maria Rosa Domingo-Sananes
7. Conor J Meehan

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This useful study analyzed 335 Mycobacterium tuberculosis Complex genomes and found that MTBC has a closed pangenome with few accessory genes. The research provides solid evidence for gene presence-absence patterns which support the appending conclusions however, the main criticism regarding the dominance of genome reduction remains.

Reviewed by eLife

Regulatory networks of KRAB zinc finger genes and transposable elements changed during human brain evolution and disease

1. Yao-Chung Chen
2. Arnaud Maupas
3. Katja Nowick

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  The authors present a software (TEKRABber) to analyze how expression of transposable elements (TEs) and TE silencing factors KRAB zinc finger (KRAB-ZNF) genes are correlated in experimentally validated datasets. TEKRABber is used to reconstruct regulatory networks of KRAB-ZNFs and TEs during human brain evolution and in Alzheimer's disease. The direction of the work is important, with potentially significant interest from others looking for a tool for correlative gene expression analysis across individual genomes and species. However, the reviews identified biases and shortcomings in the pipeline that could lead to an unacceptable number of false positive and negative signals and thus impact the conclusions, leaving the work in its current form incomplete.

Reviewed by eLife

Malaria shaped human spatial organisation for the last 74 thousand years

1. Margherita Colucci
2. Michela Leonardi
3. James Blinkhorn
4. Seth R. Irish
5. Cecilia Padilla-Iglesias
6. Stefanie Kaboth-Bar
7. William D. Gosling
8. Robert W. Snow
9. Andrea Manica
10. Eleanor M.L. Scerri

Reviewed by preLights

Structural evolution of nitrogenase over 3 billion years

1. Bruno Cuevas Zuviría
2. Franka Detemple
3. Kaustubh Amritkar
4. Amanda K Garcia
5. Lance Seefeldt
6. Oliver Einsle
7. Betül Kaçar

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable study presents computational analyses of over 5,000 predicted extant and ancestral nitrogenase structures. The data analyses are convincing, it offers unique insights into the relationship between structural evolution and environmental and biological phenotypes. The data generated in this study provide a vast resource that can serve as a starting point for studies of reconstructed and extant nitrogenases.

Reviewed by eLife

Comparative genomics of Rickettsiella bacteria reveal variable metabolic pathways potentially involved in symbiotic interactions with arthropods

1. Anna M. Floriano
2. Adil El-Filali
3. Julien Amoros
4. Marie Buysse
5. Hélène Jourdan-Pineau
6. Hein Sprong
7. Robert Kohl
8. Ron P. Dirks
9. Peter Schaap
10. Jasper Koehorst
11. Bart Nijsse
12. Didier Bouchon
13. Vincent Daubin
14. Fabrice Vavre
15. Olivier Duron

Reviewed by Peer Community in Evolutionary Biology

Adaptations in wing morphology rather than wingbeat kinematics enable flight in small hoverfly species

1. Camille Le Roy
2. Nina Tervelde
3. Thomas Engels
4. Florian T Muijres

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study addresses how wing morphology and kinematics change across hoverflies of different body sizes. The authors provide convincing evidence that there is no significant correlation between body size and wing kinematics across 28 species and instead argue that non-trivial changes in wing size and shape evolved to support flight across the size range. Overall, this paper illustrates the power and beauty of an integrative approach to animal biomechanics and will be of broad interest to biologists, physicists and engineers.

Reviewed by eLife

Human genetic ancestry, Mycobacterium tuberculosis diversity and tuberculosis disease severity in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

1. Michaela Zwyer
2. Zhi Ming Xu
3. Amanda Ross
4. Jerry Hella
5. Mohamed Sasamalo
6. Maxime Rotival
7. Hellen Hiza
8. Liliana K Rutaihwa
9. Sonia Borrell
10. Klaus Reither
11. Jacques Fellay
12. Damien Portevin
13. Lluis Quintana-Murci
14. Sebastien Gagneux
15. Daniela Brites

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable observational study was conducted in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, to investigate potential associations between genetic variation in Mycobacterium tuberculosis and human host vs. disease severity. The authors conclude that human genetic ancestry did not contribute to tuberculosis severity and the evidence supporting this is generally convincing. The findings have significance for the understanding of the influence of host/bacillary genetics on tuberculosis disease.

Reviewed by eLife

Genetic parallels in biomineralization of the calcareous sponge Sycon ciliatum and stony corals

1. Oliver Voigt
2. Magdalena V Wilde
3. Thomas Fröhlich
4. Benedetta Fradusco
5. Sergio Vargas
6. Gert Wörheide

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important paper reports the discovery of calcarins, a protein family that seems to be involved in calcification in the calcareous sponge Sycon ciliatum, significantly enhancing our understanding of the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying spicule formation in sponges and the evolution of carbonate biomineralization. The conclusions are supported by compelling evidence based on an integrated analysis that combines transcriptomics, genomics, proteomics, and precise in situ hybridization. These findings will be of broad interest to cell biologists, biochemists, and evolutionary biologists.

Reviewed by eLife

Rapid promoter evolution of male accessory gland genes is accompanied by divergent expression in closely related Drosophila species

1. David W. J. McQuarrie
2. Frannie H. S. Stephens
3. Alexander D. Ferguson
4. Roland Arnold
5. Alberto Civetta
6. Matthias Soller

Reviewed by Review Commons