Li, Huang & Li show that Asgard primases fall into two major groups, the Heimdall and Loki groups, which are phylogenetically and structurally more closely related to eukaryotic primases and to primases from non-Asgard archaea, respectively. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf330 #evobio #molbio

Shi et al. investigate the genomic architecture of distyly in Cordia subcordata; the candidate S-locus contained 12 genes, including CsGA2ox6, exclusively expressed in S-morph. Functional assays support this gene's role in heterostyly. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf322 #evobio #molbio #PlantSky

My first paper on cancer an evolution i out in Molecular Biology and Evolution, @molbioevol.bsky.social. We retest the skin cancer hypothesis for dark skin evolution in ancestral humans, using migration-related mismatch and find acute UV-related risks likely drove selection doi.org/10.1093/molb...

Tang et al. analyze genome data from 11 Xisima Cemetery individuals (China's Central Plain), demonstrating that social stratification occurred without corresponding genetic distinction, supporting decoupling of social hierarchy from genetics. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf316 #evobio #molbio

Thawornwattana, Rannala & @zihengyang.bsky.social use simulation to study the false positive rate of a Bayesian test of gene flow under the MSC with multiple influencing factors. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf327 #evobio #molbio #compbio

@mariusmaur.bsky.social et al. investigate the venom system in Neuroptera by integrating genomics, transcriptomics and functional assays, showing that their toxin arsenal is the result of a multitude of genomic and evolutionary mechanisms. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf326 #evobio #molbio

Congrats to all @genomicsed.bsky.social students and faculty who participated!!

Haller, Ralph & Messer present SLiM 5, a major extension of the SLiM simulation framework for simulating multiple chromosomes, enabling a heightened level of realism for full-genome simulations. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf313 #evobio #molbio #compbio

The January cover of Molecular Biology and Evolution features the work of Stanek et al., who investigated chromosome-specific size expansion by focusing on the Drosophila "dot chromosome”. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf304 #evobio #molbio #drosophila

Stanek et al. studied the Drosophila "dot chromosome” to investigate chromosome-specific size expansion, focusing on four species whose dot chromosomes are 2- to 15-fold larger compared to D. melanogaster. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf304 #evobio #molbio #drosophila

Sigeman et al. used comparative population genomics of 264 individuals from all seven European wood ant species, proposing that selection to escape fitness costs underlies haplotype loss in obligately polygynous wood ants. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf320 #evobio #molbio

A postdoc in my lab, Ben Flanagan, just had a really nice paper come out in MB&E @official-smbe.bsky.social comparing transcriptomic response to a standardized immune challenge in 14 phylogenetically diverse species of ray-finned fishes academic.oup.com/mbe/advance-...

🧪 Scientists are learning more about higher levels of emergent interactions between transcription factors- is this a new 🔑 to understanding both primitive and sentient cognition phenotypes in animal neuroscience?

Lee et al. used B-lymphoblastoid cells from three great ape species and humans to show that human ZEB2 is distinct in regulating a larger repertoire of genes implicated in neuronal development. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf318 #evobio #molbio

"cis-regulatory evolution involves turnover of thousands of individual binding site instances while largely preserving transcription factors’ binding preferences." From: academic.oup.com/mbe/advance-...

If functional constraints limit the realm of possibilities in terms of allowed #gene evolutionary trajectories then recurring patterns should be observable for genes evolving under similar constraints academic.oup.com/mbe/article/...

academic.oup.com/mbe/article/... Question for the #microsky nerds -- Would you expect to see the same trends for environmentally transmitted plant pathogens? (Also if you have any papers on this topic, please share!)

@rcply.bsky.social argues that phylogenetic inferences in sponge–ctenophore–bilaterian relationships based on shared chromosomal rearrangements suffer from insufficient statistical support. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf321 #evobio #molbio

Our recent article on the adaptive consequences of altered translation accuracy is the focus of December's MBE Highlight. Highlight: How Life's “Mistakes” Impact Adaptation 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf308 #evobio #molbio

Reposting as the first author — it’s an honour to see this work published in Molecular Biology and Evolution, and I’m happy to answer questions about it!

@laasya2.bsky.social @deepaagashe.bsky.social et al. quantified the growth cost of mistranslation rates and exposure to antibiotics in E. coli, finding that altered translation accuracy can shape adaptive outcomes. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf312 🖌️ Nishant Asawadekar #evobio #molbio

@soniacelestini.bsky.social @lipanovaveronika.bsky.social J. Vlček & F. Kolář combined soil data with genomes of 76 populations of diploid–autotetraploid Arabidopsis arenosa to test adaptation to distinct soil types between ploidies. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf298 #evobio #molbio

Nilkant et al. construct the phylogeny of the tri-PDZ domains in DLG4 (one of the most abundant synaptic proteins) to its deep ancestral origin in Filozoa, which includes animals and their nearest unicellular relatives. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf309 #evobio #molbio

SMBE is now on Weixin/WeChat! Stay up-to-date with the latest news, events, and articles published in @molbioevol.bsky.social and @genomebiolevol.bsky.social Follow the @officialSMBE account, or scan the QR code with the app. 🔗 academic.oup.com/smbejournals/pages/wechat #society

So happy that this work simultaneously measuring the costs of antibiotic exposure and mistranslation is finally out in MBE! Work from @deepaagashe.bsky.social (who was ultra patient!) and my labs. Do see the research highlight here, with Nishant's lovely graphic. academic.oup.com/mbe/article/...

How do bacteria deal with double costs? And how costly are unusual levels of mistranslation anyway? In short - antibiotics are more of an issue than less/more mistranslation, but the latter changes how populations deal with antibiotics. For the long story, check out our new paper!

More #Crustmas science, and about today's topic of parasitic barnacles 🧪

Go have a look at this great paper by @julietteluiselli.bsky.social and Paul Banse!!

Vericel et al. compared genomes of 46 aphid species to test whether transitions from heteroecy to monoecy alter evolutionary dynamics at the gene level; results suggest that the loss of a complex life cycle leads to reduced selective constraints. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf307 #evobio #molbio

Severino, Cuéllar et al. used ancestral sequence reconstruction and protein resurrection to infer and characterize the ancestor of chaperonins, providing structural reconstruction of the most ancient and complex multimeric proteins so far. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf314 #evobio #molbio

Jung et al. analyse mtDNA genomes of parasitic and non-parasitic barnacles, revealing that Rhizocephala species exhibit patterns of mtDNA evolution associated with their parasitic lifestyle, driven by adaptive and non-adaptive processes. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf303 #evobio #molbio

Some more shenanigans on the Ctenophora Porifera debate from @rcply.bsky.social academic.oup.com/mbe/advance-...

@julietteluiselli.bsky.social et al. introduce a mathematical model of genome size evolution, showing that the noncoding fraction of the genome is shaped by biases in mutational neutrality, and robustness selection arising from structural mutations 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf315 #evobio #molbio

Espino et al. investigate the evolutionary history of conotoxins as a model to understand the mechanism of ancestral gene neofunctionalization, which may have contributed to the emergence of mollusk-hunting in cone snails. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf302 #evobio #molbio

To address uncertainty in model choice for reconstructing population history, Xu, @alexeidrummond.bsky.social et al. introduce a new Bayesian model averaging (BMA) framework. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf297 #evobio #molbio #compbio

Fabbri et al. studied the Apennine brown bear population, which has coexisted with humans in Central Italy for millennia, showing these bears have reduced genetic diversity and selective signatures at genes associated with reduced aggressiveness. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf292 #evobio #molbio

"»…Apennin-Braunbären…selektive Signaturen bei Genen aufweisen, d mit einer geringeren Aggressivität in Verbindung gebracht werden«, sagte Co-Autorin Giulia Fabbri…." "»Unsere Ergebnisse stützen die Hypothese, dass vom Menschen verursachte Selektion die Veränderungen im Verhalten begünstigt hat«,…."

@morgan-lamberioux.bsky.social @amazeld.bsky.social et al. reveal that nearly half of all bacterial genomes carry more than one Peptide deformylases gene; these are essential for bacterial viability and are targets for antibiotic development. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf311 #evobio #molbio

Chai et al. examined selection and amino acid substitutions in the Wnt signaling pathway, identifying an ascrotal mammal-specific substitution in ZNRF3, providing insights into the pathogenesis of cryptorchidism in humans and domestic animals. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf310 #evobio #molbio

@cademirch.bsky.social @erikenbody.bsky.social TB Sackton & @russcd.bsky.social introduce Callable Loci And More (clam), a tool that leverages callable loci to accurately estimate population genetic statistics (π, dxy, and FST). 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf282 #evobio #molbio #compbio

Apennine brown bear #genomic diversity - comparing whole #genome resequencing data from Apennine, Central European, and North American brown bears academic.oup.com/mbe/article/... #biodiversity #genomics

Now in print: tour de force mitonuclear epistasis study in C. elegans. Start to finish, vision and execution, 100% Tuc Nguyen @tuchmnguyen.bsky.social

Such a collaborative adventure! Thanks a lot to all co-authors! @cnrsbiologie.bsky.social @urgi-inrae.bsky.social @inrae-toulouse.bsky.social @univparissaclay.bsky.social @nyuad-oaa.bsky.social 👏👏👏

Such a #PLEASURE to be involved in this collaboration ! All the #transposon annotated during the project can be visualized in #RepetDB the TE database. #TEsky

Olvera-Vazquez, @cornilleamand.bsky.social et al. analyzed olfactory and gustatory receptor genes in 12 aphid genomes with varying host plant ranges. Aphid lineages with broader host ranges exhibited higher evolutionary rates. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf238 #evobio #molbio

Nguyen et al. used C. elegans as a model to study mitonuclear epistasis, leveraging genetic and phenotypic data to show that mitonuclear epistasis contributed significantly to phenotypic variance across all tested conditions. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf300 #evobio #molbio

Cheng, Sohail & McKay reveal how incorporating temporal information reduces multiple sources of noise when estimating selection coefficients. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf301 #evobio #molbio

New publications from Immonen Lab 1.Sex-Biased Gene Expression Under Sexually Antagonistic and Sex-Limited Selection academic.oup.com/mbe/article/... 2.The effects of sexual selection on functional and molecular reproductive divergence academic.oup.com/evlett/advan... #evolution #selection

Why? Because ELM was optimized by ML for use with C60 on a large pan-eukaryotic data set and fits much better than LG. See this paper: academic.oup.com/mbe/article/... /2

Ancestral Chaperonins Provide the First Structural Glimpse into Early Multimeric Protein Evolution Magnifique papier et en plus qui va dans le même sens que ce qu'on disait en 2021 dans un de mes papiers sur la topologie et l'émergence du Groupe 3 des chaperonines. academic.oup.com/mbe/article/...