Evolutionary Biology

The metamorphic transition of the frog mouth: from tadpole keratinized mouthparts to adult teeth

1. Daniel J. Paluh
2. Madeline Brinkman
3. Kyliah Gilliam-Beale
4. Daniela Salcedo-Recio
5. Jacob Szafranski
6. James Hanken
7. Gareth J. Fraser

Reviewed by preLights

Evolutionary adaptations of TRPA1 thermosensitivity and skin thermoregulation in vertebrates

1. Gabriel E. Bertolesi
2. Neda Heshami
3. Sarah McFarlane

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

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

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

Identification and comparison of orthologous cell types from primate embryoid bodies shows limits of marker gene transferability

1. Jessica Jocher
2. Philipp Janssen
3. Beate Vieth
4. Fiona C Edenhofer
5. Tamina Dietl
6. Anita Térmeg
7. Paulina Spurk
8. Johanna Geuder
9. Wolfgang Enard
10. Ines Hellmann

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  The authors have generated important resources such as a reference dataset of early primate development by utilizing single-cell transcriptomic technology together with induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from four primate species: humans, orangutans, cynomolgus macaques, and rhesus macaques. By analyzing marker gene expression and cell types across species during undirected differentiation of iPSCs, the authors provide solid evidence that the transferability of marker genes decreases as the evolutionary distance between species increases. This work demonstrates the extended usage of iPSCs for broader fields, which will benefit several scientific communities including anthropology, comparative biology, and evolutionary biology.

Reviewed by eLife