Evolutionary Biology

Stochastic parabolic growth promotes coexistence and a relaxed error threshold in RNA-like replicator populations

1. Mátyás Paczkó
2. Eörs Szathmáry
3. András Szilágyi

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study provides a valuable theoretical exploration of non-enzymatic sustained replication of RNA systems, in the parabolic growth regime of the evolution of putative primordial replicators. It provides convincing evidence that parabolic growth mitigates the error threshold catastrophe, thus demonstrating another way in which this regime contributes to the maintenance of genetic diversity. The findings shed light on relevant evolutionary regimes of primordial replicators, with potential applicability to our understanding of the origin of life.

Reviewed by eLife

Discarded sequencing reads uncover natural variation in pest resistance in Thlaspi arvense

1. Dario Galanti
2. Jun Hee Jung
3. Caroline Müller
4. Oliver Bossdorf

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important study presents a significant methodological advance by leveraging previously discarded, unmapped DNA sequence reads to estimate pest infestation loads across plant accessions, and map variation in these apparent pest loads to defense genes. While the bioinformatics approach is convincing, the study appears incomplete because actual pest infestation was not systematically quantified, and thus loads inferred from sequencing reads are not validated. The results could have broad implications for phenotype-genotype prediction, especially regarding the use of unmapped reads for GWAS.

Reviewed by eLife

Gene expression is the main driver of purifying selection in large penguin populations

1. Emiliano Trucchi
2. Piergiorgio Massa
3. Francesco Giannelli
4. Thibault Latrille
5. Flavia A. N. Fernandes
6. Lorena Ancona
7. Nils Chr Stenseth
8. Joan Ferrer Obiol
9. Josephine Paris
10. Giorgio Bertorelle
11. Céline Le Bohec

Reviewed by Peer Community in Evolutionary Biology

A scenario for an evolutionary selection of ageing

1. T. Roget
2. C. MacMurray
3. P. Jolivet
4. S. Méléard
5. M. Rera

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  Through a theoretical approach, this study makes important contributions to our understanding of the evolutionary causes of the ageing process. Using a simple individual-based model and computational simulations, the authors provide convincing evidence that ageing can be a trait under natural selection, opening the door for further discussion in the context of lifespan extension research.

Reviewed by eLife

Biases of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) in Physical Anthropology Studies Require a Reevaluation of Evolutionary Insights

1. Nima Mohseni
2. Eran Elhaik

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  The authors present a critique of current usage of principal component analysis in geometric morphometrics, making a convincing case with benchmark data that standard techniques perform poorly. The work is an important contribution to the field and will hopefully lead to a reassessment of the methodology most scientists in morphometrics currently use. The authors also present a new Python package that uses machine learning to provide better-supported results than principal component analysis. While the package is in the title of the manuscript, it is not its main focus.

Reviewed by eLife

Menopause has not evolved as a general trait in mammals: A response to ‘Do mammals have menopause?’

1. Simon N. Chapman
2. Samuel Ellis
3. Mirkka Lahdenperä
4. Darren P. Croft
5. Virpi Lummaa

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

Epistasis facilitates functional evolution in an ancient transcription factor

1. Brian PH Metzger
2. Yeonwoo Park
3. Tyler N Starr
4. Joseph W Thornton

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study includes fundamental findings on protein evolution, namely that changes in function are largely attributable to pairwise rather than higher-order interactions, and that epistasis potentiates rather than constrains evolutionary paths. Compelling evidence supporting the conclusions is provided by applying a new model to a previously generated experimental dataset on deep mutational scanning of the DNA-binding domain (DBD) of steroid hormone receptor. The implications of this work are of considerable interest to protein biochemistry, evolutionary biology, and numerous other fields.

Reviewed by eLife

Evolution of tandem repeats in putative CSP to enhance its function: A recent and exclusive event in Plasmodium vivax in India

1. Manoswini Dash
2. Veena Pande
3. Aparup Das
4. Abhinav Sinha

Reviewed by preLights

Cross-species analysis of ARPP19 phosphorylation during oocyte meiotic maturation charts the emergence of a new cAMP-dependent role in vertebrates

1. Ferdinand Meneau
2. Pascal Lapébie
3. Enrico Maria Daldello
4. Tran Le
5. Sandra Chevalier
6. Evelyn Houliston
7. Catherine Jessus
8. Marika Miot

Reviewed by Review Commons

Evolutionary History of Calcium-Sensing Receptors Unveils Hyper/Hypocalcemia-Causing Mutations

1. Aylin Bircan
2. Nurdan Kuru
3. Onur Dereli
4. Berkay Selçuk
5. Ogün Adebali

Reviewed by Review Commons