Evolutionary Biology

Dominant contribution of Asgard archaea to eukaryogenesis

1. Victor Tobiasson
2. Jacob Luo
3. Yuri I Wolf
4. Eugene V Koonin

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

Seasonal and comparative evidence of adaptive gene expression in mammalian brain size plasticity

1. William R Thomas
2. Troy Richter
3. Erin T O'Neil
4. Cecilia Baldoni
5. Angelique Corthals
6. Dominik von Elverfeldt
7. John D Nieland
8. Dina Dechmann
9. Richard Hunter
10. Liliana M Davalos

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study presents valuable findings related to seasonal brain size plasticity in the Eurasian common shrew (Sorex araneus), which is an excellent model system for these studies. The evidence supporting the authors' claims is convincing. The work will be of interest to biologists working on neuroscience, plasticity, and evolution.

Reviewed by eLife

Variation in albumin glycation rates in birds suggests resistance to relative hyperglycaemia rather than conformity to the pace of life syndrome hypothesis

1. Adrián Moreno Borrallo
2. Sarahi Jaramillo Ortiz
3. Christine Schaeffer-Reiss
4. Benoît Quintard
5. Benjamin Rey
6. Pierre Bize
7. Vincent A Viblanc
8. Thierry Boulinier
9. Olivier Chastel
10. Jorge S Gutiérrez
11. José A Masero
12. Fabrice Bertile
13. Francois Criscuolo

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study uses extensive comparative analysis to examine the relationship between plasma glucose levels, albumin glycation levels, and diet and life history, within the framework of the "pace of life syndrome" hypothesis. The evidence that glucose is positively correlated with glycation levels and lifespan is convincing and, although there are some limitations related to data collection, they likely make the statistically significant findings more conservative. As the first extensive comparative analysis of glycation rates, life history, and glucose levels in birds, the study has the potential to be of interest to evolutionary ecologists and the aging research community more broadly.

Reviewed by eLife

The structure of an ancient genotype-phenotype map shaped the functional evolution of a protein family

1. Santiago Herrera-Álvarez
2. Jaeda E. J. Patton
3. Joseph W. Thornton

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

Lifestyles shape genome size and gene content in fungal pathogens

1. Anna Fijarczyk
2. Pauline Hessenauer
3. Richard C Hamelin
4. Christian R Landry

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study addresses a topic that is frequently discussed in the literature but is under-assessed, namely correlations among genome size, repeat content, and pathogenicity in fungi. Contrary to previous assertions, the authors found that repeat content is not associated with pathogenicity. Rather, pathogenic lifestyle was found to be better explained by the number of protein-coding genes, with other genomic features associated with insect association status. While the results are considered solid, confidence in the results would be deepened if the authors were to comprehensively account for potential biases stemming from the underlying data quality of the analyzed genomes.

Reviewed by eLife

On the potential for GWAS with phenotypic population means and allele-frequency data (popGWAS)

1. Markus Pfenninger

Reviewed by Peer Community in Evolutionary Biology

Compensatory Evolution to DNA Replication Stress is Robust to Nutrient Availability

1. Mariana Natalino
2. Marco Fumasoni

Reviewed by Review Commons

Pronounced expression of extracellular matrix proteoglycans regulated by Wnt pathway underlies the parallel evolution of lip hypertrophy in East African cichlids

1. Nagatoshi Machii
2. Ryo Hatashima
3. Tatsuya Niwa
4. Hideki Taguchi
5. Ismael A Kimirei
6. Hillary DJ Mrosso
7. Mitsuto Aibara
8. Tatsuki Nagasawa
9. Masato Nikaido

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  Cichlid fishes have attracted attention from a wide range of biologists because of their
  extensive species diversification at the ecological and phenotypic levels. In this important study, the authors have partially revealed the mechanism behind lip thickening in cichlid fishes, which has evolved independently across three lakes in Africa. To explore this phenomenon, the authors used histological comparison, proteomics, and transcriptomics, all of which are well suited for their objectives. With compelling evidence, this contribution provides insights into parallel evolution in polygenic traits and holds significant value for the field.

Reviewed by eLife

Loss of a morph is associated with asymmetric character release in a radiation of woodland salamanders

1. Brian P. Waldron
2. Maggie M. Hantak
3. Emily F. Watts
4. Josef C. Uyeda
5. Alan R. Lemmon
6. Emily Moriarty Lemmon
7. Robert P. Guralnick
8. David C. Blackburn
9. Shawn R. Kuchta

Reviewed by preLights

A gene-regulatory network model for density-dependent and sex-biased dispersal evolution during range expansions

1. Jhelam N. Deshpande
2. Emanuel A. Fronhofer

Reviewed by Peer Community in Evolutionary Biology