Evolutionary Biology

On the nature of the earliest known lifeforms

1. Dheeraj Kanaparthi
2. Frances Westall
3. Marko Lampe
4. Baoli Zhu
5. Thomas Boesen
6. Bettina Scheu
7. Andreas Klingl
8. Petra Schwille
9. Tillmann Lueders

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This provocative manuscript from presents valuable comparisons of the morphologies of Archaean bacterial microfossils to those of microbes transformed under environmental conditions that mimic those present on Earth during the same Eon, although the evidence in support of the conclusions is currently incomplete. The reasons include that taphonomy is not presently considered, and a greater diversity of experimental environmental conditions is not evaluated – which is significant because we ultimately do not know much about Earth's early environments. The authors may want to reframe their conclusions to reflect this work as a first step towards an interpretation of some microfossils as 'proto-cells,' and less so as providing strong support for this hypothesis.

Reviewed by eLife

First evidence for the evolution of host manipulation by tumors during the long-term vertical transmission of tumor cells in Hydra oligactis

1. Justine Boutry
2. Océane Rieu
3. Lena Guimard
4. Jordan Meliani
5. Aurora M. Nedelcu
6. Sophie Tissot
7. Nikita Stepanskyy
8. Beata Ujvari
9. Rodrigo Hamede
10. Antoine M. Dujon
11. Jácint Tökölyi
12. Frédéric Thomas

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This interesting study explores whether tumor cells can manipulate their Hydra hosts and has useful findings on the consequences for the fitness of the host Hydra.
  However, the evidence supporting these findings was incomplete, would benefit from the addition of several control experiments. The work will be of broad interest to many fields including development biology, evolutionary biology and tumor biology.

Reviewed by eLife

Recurrent Evolutionary Innovations in Rodent and Primate Schlafen Genes

1. Joris Mordier
2. Marine Fraisse
3. Michel Cohen-Tannoudji
4. Antoine Molaro

Reviewed by Review Commons

The emergence and evolution of gene expression in genome regions replete with regulatory motifs

1. Timothy Fuqua
2. Yiqiao Sun
3. Andreas Wagner

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This useful study explores the relationship between the sequence of prokaryotic promoter elements and their activity using mutagenesis to generate thousands of mutant sequences. The evidence supporting these findings is incomplete, and would benefit from additional experiments, clarification of methods, and a more detailed discussion of related literature. This work will appeal to those interested in bacterial genetics, genome evolution, and gene regulation.

Reviewed by eLife

Taking fear back into the Marginal Value Theorem: the risk-MVT and optimal boldness

1. Vincent Calcagno
2. Frédéric Grognard
3. Frédéric M. Hamelin
4. Ludovic Mailleret

Reviewed by Peer Community in Evolutionary Biology

Changes in wing morphology rather than wingbeat kinematics enabled evolutionary miniaturization of hoverflies

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

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important study addresses the question of how wing morphology and kinematics changed as insect species miniaturized. The authors found no significant correlation between body size and wing kinematics across eight hoverfly species, and instead argue that evolutionary changes in wing size and shape enabled flight in smaller species. However, if the integrative approach to animal biomechanics is strong, the evidence supporting the general conclusion that changes in wing morphology, rather than kinematics, correlate with miniaturization is incomplete and would benefit from more detailed biomechanical analysis and improved methods for phylogenetic comparison.

Reviewed by eLife

Indels allow antiviral proteins to evolve functional novelty inaccessible by missense mutations

1. Jeannette L. Tenthorey
2. Serena del Banco
3. Ishrak Ramzan
4. Hayley Klingenberg
5. Chang Liu
6. Michael Emerman
7. Harmit S. Malik

Reviewed by PREreview

Relationship between weapon size and six key behavioural and physiological traits in males of the European earwig

1. Samantha E M Blackwell
2. Laura Pasquier
3. Simon Dupont
4. Severine devers
5. Charlotte Lecureuil
6. Joël Meunier

Reviewed by Peer Community In Zoology

The slowly evolving genome of the xenacoelomorph worm Xenoturbella bocki

1. Philipp H. Schiffer
2. Paschalis Natsidis
3. Daniel J. Leite
4. Helen E. Robertson
5. François Lapraz
6. Ferdinand Marlétaz
7. Bastian Fromm
8. Liam Baudry
9. Fraser Simpson
10. Eirik Høye
11. Anne-C. Zakrzewski
12. Paschalia Kapli
13. Katharina J. Hoff
14. Steven Mueller
15. Martial Marbouty
16. Heather Marlow
17. Richard R. Copley
18. Romain Koszul
19. Peter Sarkies
20. Maximilian J. Telford

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  The authors provide a high quality genome of the xenacoelomorph worm Xenoturbella bocki and discuss its structure and evolution. Understanding the genomic structure of this group provides important insights into bilaterian evolution. The authors make a solid case that the data they present can support the placement of Xenacoelomorpha within the deuterostomes rather than as a sister group to all other bilaterians, but do not unequivocally reject the competing scenario.

Reviewed by eLife

Genetic architecture of inbreeding depression may explain its persistence in a population of wild red deer

1. Anna M. Hewett
2. Susan E. Johnston
3. Alison Morris
4. Sean Morris
5. Josephine M. Pemberton

Reviewed by PREreview