Evolutionary Biology

DateBack, an evolving open-access repository of Phoenix archaeobotanical data supporting new perspectives on the history of date palm cultivation

1. Margot Besseiche
2. Elora Chambraud
3. Vladimir Dabrowski
4. Elisa Brandstatt
5. François Sabot
6. Charlène Bouchaud
7. Muriel Gros-Balthazard

Reviewed by Peer Community in Archaeology

mirror determines the far posterior domain in butterfly wings

1. Martik Chatterjee
2. Xin Yi Yu
3. Noah K Brady
4. Connor Amendola
5. Gabriel C Hatto
6. Robert D Reed

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study provides evidence of a deeply conserved role for the gene Mirror in providing positional identity in the posterior part of butterfly and fly wings, despite increased morphological complexity of butterfly wings. The findings are solid for the field of evo-devo. However, the tools in butterflies are more limited than in Drosophila and it is more difficult to determine which specific cells are mutant and whether the effect of mutation is cell-intrinsic. The work will be of interest to evolutionary and developmental biologists working on insect wing evolution and the evolution of patterning more generally.

Reviewed by eLife

Magnetotactic bacteria optimally navigate natural pore networks

1. Alexander P Petroff
2. Julia Hernandez
3. Vladislav Kelin
4. Nina Radchenko-Hannafin

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  Combining experiments in microfluidic devices and computer simulation, this study provides a valuable analysis of the relevant parameters that determine the motility of (multicellular) magnetotactic bacteria in sediment-like environments. The study presents convincing evidence that there is an optimum in the biological parameters for motile life under such conditions.

Reviewed by eLife

Dynamics of natural selection preceding human viral epidemics and pandemics

1. Jennifer L. Havens
2. Sergei L. Kosakovsky Pond
3. Jordan D. Zehr
4. Jonathan E. Pekar
5. Edyth Parker
6. Michael Worobey
7. Kristian G. Andersen
8. Joel O. Wertheim

Reviewed by PREreview

Estimates of molecular convergence reveal genes with intermediate pleiotropy underlying adaptive variation across teleost fish

1. Agneesh Barua
2. Malvika Srivastava
3. Brice Beinsteiner
4. Vincent Laudet
5. Marc Robinson-Rechavi

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

Evolutionary and functional analyses reveal a role for the RHIM in tuning RIPK3 activity across vertebrates

1. Elizabeth J Fay
2. Kolya Isterabadi
3. Charles M Rezanka
4. Jessica Le
5. Matthew D Daugherty

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study provides compelling evidence for the evolutionary diversification and conserved NFκB-inducing function of RHIM-containing RIP kinase proteins across animal lineages, combining thorough bioinformatic analysis with functional assays in human cells. The findings are of broad interest to immunologists and evolutionary biologists, though some novel observations would benefit from deeper conceptual integration.

Reviewed by eLife

Evolution of gene order in prokaryotes is driven primarily by gene gain and loss

1. Shelly Brezner
2. Sofya K. Garushyants
3. Yuri I. Wolf
4. Eugene V. Koonin
5. Sagi Snir

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

The visual system of the longest-living vertebrate, the Greenland shark

1. Lily G. Fogg
2. Emily Tom
3. Maxime Policarpo
4. William Cho
5. Fangyuan Gao
6. Steven F. Grieco
7. Doreen Hii
8. Aaron E. Fawcett
9. Nicolas Boileau
10. Amalie Bech-Poulsen
11. Kirstine F. Steffensen
12. Cherlyn J Ng
13. Peter G. Bushnell
14. John Fleng Steffensen
15. Richard Brill
16. Walter Salzburger
17. Dorota Skowronska-Krawczyk

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

Low-dimensional genotype-fitness mapping across divergent environments suggests a limiting functions model of fitness

1. Olivia M. Ghosh
2. Grant Kinsler
3. Benjamin H. Good
4. Dmitri A. Petrov

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

The population structure of invasive Lantana camara is shaped by its mating system

1. P Praveen
2. Rajesh Gopal
3. Uma Ramakrishnan

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  The submission by Praveen and colleagues reports important findings describing the structure of genetic and colour variation in its native range for the globally invasive weed Lantana camara. Whilst the importance of the research question and the scale of the sampling is appreciated, the analysis, which is currently incomplete, requires further tests to support the claims made by the authors.

Reviewed by eLife