Evolutionary Biology

Large inversions in Lake Malawi cichlids are associated with habitat preference, lineage, and sex determination

1. Nikesh M Kumar
2. Taylor L Cooper
3. Thomas D Kocher
4. J Todd Streelman
5. Patrick T McGrath

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  Using several hundreds of samples and cutting-edge genomic methods, including BioNano, PacBio, HiFi, and advanced bioinformatic pipelines, the authors identify six large chromosomal inversions segregating in over 100 species of Lake Malawi cichlids. This important study provides compelling evidence for the presence of these six inversions, their differential distribution among populations, and the association of chromosome 10 inversion with a sex-determination locus. This work also provides a starting point for further investigating the role of these inversions with respect to local adaptation, speciation, sex determination, hybridization, and ILS in cichlids, which represent ~5% of the extant vertebrate species and are one of the most prominent examples of adaptive radiations.

Reviewed by eLife

Population structure and genetic diversity of the Critically Endangered bowmouth guitarfish (Rhina ancylostomus) in the Northwest Indian Ocean

1. Marja J. Kipperman
2. Rima W. Jabado
3. Alifa Bintha Haque
4. Daniel Fernando
5. P.A.D.L Anjani
6. Julia L.Y. Spaet
7. Emily Humble

Reviewed by Peer Community in Evolutionary Biology

Upstream open reading frames buffer translational variability during Drosophila evolution and development

1. Yuanqiang Sun
2. Yuange Duan
3. Peixiang Gao
4. Chenlu Liu
5. Kaichun Jin
6. Shengqian Dou
7. Wenxiong Tang
8. Hong Zhang
9. Jian Lu

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study reveals the important role of upstream open reading frames (uORFs) in limiting the translational variability of downstream coding sequences. Through a combination of computational simulations, comparative analyses of translation efficiency across different developmental stages in two closely related Drosophila species, and manipulative, experimental validation of translation buffering by an uORF for a gene, the authors provide convincing evidence supporting their conclusions. This work will be of broad interest to molecular biologists and geneticists.

Reviewed by eLife

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