Article
Ecology
Jorge Pena, Aviad Heifetz, Georg Noldeke
Summary: Cooperation usually becomes harder to sustain as groups become larger, but in some cases, increasing group size can increase the probability of cooperation. The expected payoff and the probability of provision of the public good vary with the cost of cooperation.
THEORETICAL POPULATION BIOLOGY
(2024)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Ruidang Yang, Bijian He, Shengqi Zhang, Ruifeng Mei, Jiaqi Liu, Tianpeng Yin, Le Cai
Summary: In this study, the phytochemical analysis of Asparagus lycopodineus was conducted for the first time, leading to the isolation of 14 compounds. Among them, five compounds have never been found in the Asparagus genus before. Additionally, the results highlight the close evolutionary relationship among A. lycopodineus, A. cochinchinensis, and A. filicinus.
BIOCHEMICAL SYSTEMATICS AND ECOLOGY
(2024)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Bo-Yang Shi, Da Pan, Kang-Qin Zhang, Tian-Yu Gu, Darren C. J. Yeo, Peter K. L. Ng, Neil Cumberlidge, Hong-Ying Sun
Summary: This study investigates the evolutionary history and speciation mechanisms of montane potamids in the Hengduan Mountains Region. The results suggest that the vicariance events of these crabs are correlated with the emergence of sky islands due to the uplift of the mountains. The mountain ridges provided corridors for their dispersal and past climatic conditions played a crucial role in their evolutionary history. The mechanisms isolating sky islands are reinforced by the climatic features of dry-hot valleys and continue to affect local diversification.
MOLECULAR PHYLOGENETICS AND EVOLUTION
(2024)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Anna Cho, Denis Tikhonenkov, Gordon Lax, Kristina I. Prokina, Patrick J. Keeling
Summary: Unlike conspicuous ochrophytes, many small and overlooked flagellates belonging to basally branching stramenopiles remain poorly characterized at the cellular or genomic level. This study describes four new species, including two new genera, of sediment-dwelling MAST-6 and provides updated phylogenomic tree of stramenopiles. The characterization of these flagellates is important due to their phylogenetic diversity and abundance in various environments.
MOLECULAR PHYLOGENETICS AND EVOLUTION
(2024)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Ingrid Olivares, Sergio Tusso, Maria Jose Sanin, Marylaure de La Harpe, Oriane Loiseau, Jonathan Rolland, Nicolas Salamin, Michael Kessler, Kentaro K. Shimizu, Margot Paris
Summary: Traditionally, differences between species have been associated with morphological variation. However, the discovery of cryptic diversity suggests that the evolution of distinct lineages can occur without morphological differences. Through genetic analysis, we found that a tropical montane plant lineage is composed of numerous unrecognized genetic groups that are not morphologically distinct. Geographic distance and topography play a crucial role in determining the genetic divergence of these groups.
MOLECULAR PHYLOGENETICS AND EVOLUTION
(2024)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Alexandra A. Grossi, Chunpo Tian, Mengjiao Ren, Fasheng Zou, Daniel R. Gustafsson
Summary: This study suggests that the coevolutionary relationships between chewing lice, endosymbiotic bacteria, and birds are not independent, but the patterns vary depending on the analysis method used. Additionally, louse host-switching does not seem to affect bacterial strains.
MOLECULAR PHYLOGENETICS AND EVOLUTION
(2024)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Ying Qi, Zhaoyan Zhong, Xu Liu, Xing He, Yadong Zhou, Lili Zhang, Chong Chen, Katrin Linse, Jian-Wen Qiu, Jin Sun
Summary: This study investigates the phylogenetic relationships among patellogastropod families using mitochondrial and phylogenomic data. The results show that the mitochondrial phylogeny recovers monophyly of most families, but the relationships among families are still contentious. However, a more robust family-level topology consistent with morphology is achieved by phylogenomics. Additionally, the mainly deep-water families are found to be monophyletic, suggesting a single colonization of the deep water during the Jurassic.
MOLECULAR PHYLOGENETICS AND EVOLUTION
(2024)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Markus Osaland Fjelde, Einar Timdal, Reidar Haugan, Mika Bendiksby
Summary: This study investigated the taxonomy of the crustose lichen genus Calvitimela using molecular phylogenetics and morphological observations. The results revealed evolutionarily old and deeply divergent lineages within Calvitimela, with overlapping morphological characters between different subgenera. Chemical characters were informative at the level of subgenera but often homoplastic at the species level. A practical taxonomy of Calvitimela was proposed based on these findings.
MOLECULAR PHYLOGENETICS AND EVOLUTION
(2024)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Attila Nemeth, Edvard Mizsei, Levente Laczko, David Czaban, Zsolt Hegyeli, Szabolcs Lengyel, Gabor Csorba, Gabor Sramko
Summary: Species delimitation of European blind mole rats is challenging due to their small morphological differences and complex chromosomal evolution. This study provides a comprehensive framework to improve understanding of their evolutionary history and revise their taxonomy. The results reveal the presence of multiple superspecies and species, with distinct geographic patterns and rapid chromosomal evolution.
MOLECULAR PHYLOGENETICS AND EVOLUTION
(2024)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Yu-Jie Shi, Jin -Liang Huang, Jia-Xuan Mi, Jing Li, Fan-Yu Meng, Yu Zhong, Fang He, Fei -Fei Tian, Fan Zhang, Liang-Hua Chen, Han-Bo Yang, Hong-Lin Hu, Xue-Qin Wan
Summary: Despite numerous studies on hybrid speciation, our understanding of this process remains limited. In this study, we conducted an 18-year systematic investigation on Populus taxa on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and discovered three new taxa that originated from distant hybridization between two different sections. These hybrid taxa demonstrate greater ecological adaptability than their ancestral species due to heterosis. We propose a hybrid speciation process model that can explain important evolutionary concerns.
MOLECULAR PHYLOGENETICS AND EVOLUTION
(2024)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Tian-Tian Xue, Steven B. Janssens, Bin-Bin Liu, Sheng-Xiang Yu
Summary: Phylogenomic conflicts are widespread among genomic data, with most previous studies primarily focusing on nuclear datasets instead of organellar genomes. In this study, we investigated the phylogenetic conflicts within and between plastid and mitochondrial genomes using Potentilla as a case study. We found that both plastid and mitochondrial genomes divided Potentilla into eight highly supported clades, with two newly identified clades. Our results demonstrate that mitochondrial genes can fully resolve phylogenetic relationships among major clades of Potentilla and are not always linked with plastomes in evolutionary history.
MOLECULAR PHYLOGENETICS AND EVOLUTION
(2024)
Article
Evolutionary Biology
Aline Possamai Della, Jefferson Prado
Summary: Areas of endemism (AoE) are important for biogeographic analyses and conservation actions. This study identified the AoE of Pteridaceae in Brazil and found congruence with areas delimited for other groups. Additionally, new AoE were discovered, emphasizing the need for further research.
Article
Evolutionary Biology
Marta Zaffaroni, Loup Rimbaud, Jean-Francois Rey, Julien Papaix, Frederic Fabre
Summary: The study suggests that sexual reproduction in pathogens may contribute to the emergence of superpathogens, especially in mosaic and mixture deployment strategies. However, sexual reproduction did not affect the strategy recommendations for a wide range of mutation probabilities, associated fitness costs, and landscape organizations.
EVOLUTIONARY APPLICATIONS
(2023)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Maeva Gabrielli, Thibault Leroy, Jordi Salmona, Benoit Nabholz, Borja Mila, Christophe Thebaud
Summary: This study investigates the demographic history of three species of passerine birds from volcanic oceanic islands and suggests that local events may have played a role in shaping population trajectories of these island species. Differences in population dynamics were observed between species living on different islands, while species or populations from the same island showed consistent demographic trajectories.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Cristian E. Cadena-Caballero, Nestor Munive-Arguelles, Lina M. Vera-Cala, Carlos Barrios-Hernandez, Ruben O. Duarte-Bernal, Viviana L. Ayus-Ortiz, Luis A. Pardo-Diaz, Mayra Agudelo-Rodriguez, Lola X. Bautista-Rozo, Laura R. Jimenez-Gutierrez, Francisco Martinez-Perez
Summary: The DNA loss model (DNA-LM) proposes that neuropeptide genes emerge through codon loss. Through transcriptome analysis and bioinformatics techniques, several neuropeptide precursors were identified and the evolutionary relationships between these neuropeptides were demonstrated.
JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR EVOLUTION
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Juliana Gomez-Consuegra, Adolfo Amezquita
Summary: This study investigates the homing ability in males of the poison frog Oophaga histrionica and finds that their performance is affected by potential indicators of territory quality or the risk of losing it. The study shows that return time is inversely related to displacement distance and that acoustic cues also have an impact on homing behavior.
EVOLUTIONARY ECOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Evolutionary Biology
Dana E. Korneisel, Sara Hassan, Hillary C. Maddin
Summary: This study found that the interglenoid tubercle on the first vertebra is one of the rare skeletal features that unite lissamphibians, through observations of frog development and examination of fossil taxa.
EVOLUTION & DEVELOPMENT
(2023)
Article
Anthropology
Adam Z. Reynolds, Sara D. Niedbalski
Summary: The study explores the variation in sex-biased gene expression across 11 human populations and investigates whether this variation may have evolved as an adaptive response to ancestral environments experienced by these populations. The results show that sex-biased gene expression is highly variable, mostly population-specific, and demonstrates reversals between populations. This indicates that sex-biased gene expression is more flexible and depends on complex interactions between population-specific molecular evolution and physiological responses to contemporary socioecologies.
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Marta De Barba, Molly Baur, Frederic Boyer, Luca Fumagalli, Marjeta Konec, Christian Miquel, Elena Pazhenkova, Nadege Remollino, Tomaz Skrbinsek, Celine Stoffel, Pierre Taberlet
Summary: Continued advancements in eDNA research have enabled the individual genotyping of large carnivores from snow tracks, showing the potential to complement non-invasive genetic studies. However, genotyping success may vary among samples and species, highlighting the need for further understanding of ideal sampling conditions and laboratory methods. This study demonstrates the feasibility of reliable individual genotyping, including sex identification, from eDNA in snow tracks, which will contribute to eDNA-based population-level studies.
MOLECULAR ECOLOGY RESOURCES
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Amanda E. Wilson, David A. Liberles
Summary: Gene duplication is an important process in evolution, but the factors determining the retention or loss of duplicated genes are not well understood. The gene duplicability hypothesis suggests that the function and number of interacting partners play a role in the retention of duplicated genes. This study explores the probability ratios of gene retention after consecutive whole genome duplication events based on different assumptions.
BMC ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2023)
