MBE | Soft Selective Sweeps Predominate in the Yellow Fever Mosquito Aedes aegypti

Ketchum, Matute & Schrider investigated positive selection in Aedes aegypti populations from Africa and the Americas, revealing that soft sweeps are more common than hard sweeps, implying this species can respond quickly to environmental stressors.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msag068

#evobio #molbio

MBE | Replicated hybrid zones reveal genomic patterns of local adaptation and introgression in spruce Photo: Sam Yeaman

Nocchi et al. compared hybridization and local adaptation within Canada spruce hybrid zones, discovering a complex pattern of introgression, with strong differences in ancestry maintained even across small spatial scales.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msag074

📷️ Sam Yeaman

#evobio #molbio #PlantSky

MBE Call for Papers on the Major Transitions of Life

MBE is excited to launch our newest Call for Papers on the Major Transitions of Life, covering all aspects of phylogenomic research.

🔗 academic.oup.com/mbe/pages/call-for-papers-on-the-major-transitions-of-life

Guest Editors:
Davide Pisani
Anja Spang

#evobio #molbio #phylogenetics

NF-κB: A Diverse and Multifunctional Transcription Factor in Holozoans Abstract. Transcription factor nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) and many upstream signaling components have been identified in a diversity of holozoan taxa,

@ben-glass.bsky.social @daviesswphd.bsky.social et al. review recent progress in understanding NF-κB transcription factors in unicellular holozoans, Porifera, Placozoa, and Cnidaria, which are involved in multiple biological functions.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msag059

#evobio #molbio

MBE | April 2026 cover

The April issue of Molecular Biology and Evolution features the work of Gu et al., who performed large-scale phylogenomic analyses of the white-bellied pangolin.

🔗 academic.oup.com/mbe/issue/43/4

🖌️ Ting Bai

#evobio #molbio

Thirteen landmarks plotted for each specimen

Principal component (PC) 1 plotted against PC 2 using Procrustes coordinates. Restricted only to large specimens. A, Transennella conradina (upper 25%), B, Abra segmentum (upper 25%), C, Chamelea gallina (upper 25%).

A very interesting study, which shows that the parasite infestation significantly distorts and expands the morphospace of bivalves. Essentially ecological-interaction mediated neutral and maladaptive ecophenotypy.
doi.org/10.1017/pab....
🧪 ⚒️ #Geology #Paleobio #EvoBio

Ancient genomes uncover dynamic cultural and genetic interplay in the eastern Tianshan Abstract. The eastern Tianshan range in Xinjiang, serving as a crucial link between the East and the West, acts as an important channel for the eastward sp

Yang et al. sequenced ancient individuals from the Bronze Age to historical periods in Xinjiang, revealing divergent genetic profiles of the western and eastern Tianshan, underscoring a complex population-culture interplay.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msag057

#evobio #molbio #humanevolution

#Lunar #Clocks - “The dating tool of #marine organisms”
#GEO highlights Tobias Kaiser’s research at #MPIEvolBio, where 11 #Clunio marinus strains help reveal how lunar #rhythms are encoded in #genes.
#MaxPlanck #Chronobiology #SciComm #EvoBio #Ecology #Biodiversity
www.evolbio.mpg.de/3873148/news...

Box and-whisker plot showing length of all individual scolecodonts (μm, logarithmic scale) over time in the Silurian, Devonian, and Carboniferous; with Devonian data separated by stage, including the Kellwasser Events (KWE) (n = 797). KWE.

The Lilliput Effect in benthic worms during the Kellwasser Event. The next question, what this systemic decrease in size across taxa means for the evolution and the generation of diversity?
doi.org/10.1017/pab....
🧪 ⚒️ #Geology #Paleobio #EvoBio #Macroecology

Comparing Neanderthal Introgression Maps Reveals Core Agreement But Substantial Heterogeneity Abstract. Statistical methods to identify Neanderthal ancestry in modern human genomes rest on varying assumptions and inputs. Nonetheless, most studies of

@yaenc.bsky.social Velazquez-Arcelay & Capra compared 14 Neanderthal introgression maps, highlighting a core set of regions predicted by nearly all methods, as well as substantial heterogeneity in commonly used introgression maps.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msag064

#evobio #molbio #humanevolution

MBE | Highlight: Ancient oceans, New skeletons—innovations in silicon transport shaped sponge skeletal evolution

This month's article on skeleton evolution in sponges is the focus of a new Highlight by SMBE Fellow Ioanna Kotari @janekay27.bsky.social

Highlight: Ancient oceans, New skeletons—innovations in silicon transport shaped sponge skeletal evolution
🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msag054

#evobio #molbio

MBE | Evolutionary genomic basis of mimicry diversity of Epicopeiidae moths

Li et al. studied the genomic basis of mimicry in Epicopeiidae moths, finding that TE-driven regulatory innovation rewired developmental gene networks, facilitating the emergence of multiple mimetic forms.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msag060

#evobio #molbio #mimicry

MBE | From Adam's rib: the Siberian moth's female W chromosome is derived from its Z counterpart Dendrolimus laying eggs on the needles of a conifer. Author: V. V. Remorov

Shipova et al. show that the female W chromosome of the Siberian moth pest is derived from the male Z, proposing that this mechanism may be common in lepidopteran evolution to counteract non-recombining chromosome degeneration.

📷 V. V. Remorov

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msag055

#evobio #molbio

An enzyme's metal preference evolves through redox modulation driven by the cofactor's secondary coordination sphere Abstract. Changes in protein properties and functions are central to the evolution of life. Metalloproteins can evolve by changing their preference from on

Mackenzie, @waldronlab.bsky.social et al. argue that differing superoxide dismutase metal preferences observed across the tree of life evolved through tuning of their redox properties by the secondary coordination sphere.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msag040

#evobio #molbio

Displacement-Optimized Tanglegrams for Trees and Networks Abstract. Phylogenetic trees and networks play a central role in biology, bioinformatics, and mathematical biology, and producing clear, informative visual

Daniel Huson introduces displacement-optimized tanglegrams (DO-tanglegrams), a new approach that applies equally to trees and rooted phylogenetic networks, performing better than cophylo on trees and then NN-tanglegram on networks.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msag066

#evobio #molbio #compbio

piqtree: a python package for seamless phylogenetic inference with IQ-TREE Abstract. piqtree (pronounced pie-cue-tree) is an easy to use, open-source Python package that provides Python script based control of IQ-TREE’s phylogenet

McArthur et al. present piqtree, an easy to use, open-source Python package that provides Python script based control of IQ-TREE’s phylogenetic inference engine.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msag061

#evobio #molbio #compbio

Habitat disturbance interacts with Bd infection to shape the skin bacterial communities of an Amazonian frog

🐸 🧪🍄🌎New Preprint alert!
Our study on how habitat disturbance + deadly fungus (Bd) mess with the skin bacteria of Amazonian poison frogs (Dendrobates tinctorius).

🔗 ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...

#Conservation #Microbiome #MolBiol #evobio @biobiiana.bsky.social @f-hoelzl.bsky.social #LiaSchlippe

Ancient DNA from colourful feathers suggests live parrots were transported across the Andes in pre‑Incan Peru, revealing complex long‑distance trade networks, reports @natcomms.nature.com: spklr.io/63327EHL8d

#EvoBio #PaleoSky

MBE | Stoichiometry-induced differential selection on codon optimization among ribosomal protein genes in bacterial species

@xuhuaxia.bsky.social shows that codon usage in bacteria is more optimized in long ribosomal protein genes; results demonstrate that translation optimization reflects functional stoichiometry and protein length constraints.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msag062

#evobio #molbio

Two PhD scholarships at Flinders University in Molecular Ecology 🧬

Project: adaptive introgression & rapid evolution under climate change
Includes fieldwork, experiments & genome sequencing

Start July 2026 | AUD$36k stipend

Contact me or luciano.beheregaray@flinders.edu.au

#PhD #EvoBio #Genomics

MBE | Innovations in Silicon Transport Shaped the Rise of Biosilicification and Skeletal Evolution in Sponges

Leria and Maldonado show sponge's skeletons likely arose as an adaptive response in early askeletal sponges to the damaging, silicic acid-rich Precambrian oceans; this adaptation evolved independently four times within Porifera.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msag047

#evobio #molbio #sponge

Comparison of species richness curves and environmental proxies.

High-resolution quantitative stratigraphical study shows the heterogenous extinction responses of foraminifera, with benthics being struck hard and collapsing fast.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
🧪 ⚒️ #Geology #Paleobio #EvoBio #Macroecology

OrthoGarden: a pipeline for propagating phylogenetic trees for nonmodel organisms from short reads and de novo genome assemblies Abstract. Phylogenomics pipelines are designed to reconstruct evolutionary relationships among groups of organisms. Existing pipelines are dependent upon r

Turner et al. introduce OrthoGarden, an automated and containerized de novo assembly-based phylogenomics pipeline aimed at recovering accurate and reproducible phylogenies from any combination of short reads and assemblies.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msag053

#evobio #molbio #compbio

Graphical representation of the current database landscape and a possible idealized scenario for the structure of the palaeobiological database landscape.

Table 2 | A roadmap to sustainable funding

We can learn unimaginable amount of things bout the history of life, climate, geosystems and the processes of evolution from the fossil record. But we need strong database curation and financing infrastructure.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
🧪 ⚒️ #Geology #Paleobio #EvoBio

Escape from X inactivation drives sex differences in gene expression Abstract. X chromosome inactivation (XCI) partially balances gene dosage between sexes; yet, many genes are expressed from the inactive X (Xi) to a variabl

@carriezhu.bsky.social , @xliaoyi.bsky.social & @arbelharpak.bsky.social find that inactive X expression levels are a strong linear predictor of female-male expression differences.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molb...

#evobio #molbio

HaploThread: a scalable desktop tool for efficient haplotype network inference and interactive visualization Abstract. This note introduces HaploThread, a user-friendly desktop software with a graphical user interface designed for constructing and visualizing hapl

Xu et al. introduce HaploThread, a user-friendly desktop software with a graphical user interface designed for constructing and visualizing haplotype networks.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molb...

#evobio #molbio #compbio

Diversification and body mass evolution in Octodontoidea and Chinchilloidea.

Craniodental disparity in Chinchilloidea (blue) and Octodontoidea (orange).

More of the evidence showing that the megaclimate is fundamentally shaping diversity and disparity:
"Subsequent Neogene and Quaternary extinctions erased much of this variation, reversing a ~30 million-year trend of greater body mass disparity"
doi.org/10.1098/rspb...
🧪 ⚒️ #Geology #Paleobio #EvoBio

MBE | Holostean genomes reveal evolutionary novelty in the vertebrate immunoproteasome that have implications for MHCI function

Barker et al. investigate the evolution of PSMB8, a core component of the immunoproteasome, suggesting that the unique PSMB8 types in holosteans contribute to a molecular basis of immune surveillance that is unlike that of other vertebrates.

🔗 academic.oup.com/mbe/article/...

#evobio #molbio

Limusoceras japonicum gen. et comb. nov. (Yabe, 1904) from the Upper Cretaceous Nanaimo Group, Vancouver Island. A–C, RBCM.EH2014.049.0025, Trent River Formation, Hamm Road/Highway 19 roadcut, extrapolated earliest two helical volutions with grey silhouettes illustrating schematized morphology of initial gyroconic stage, lateral and umbilical views, and left septal hemisuture at Wh = 7 mm. D–G, CDM 162, Trent River Formation, Trent River, two and one-half helical volutions with retroversal section, apertural, right lateral, umbilical and left lateral views. Scale bar = 1 cm.

Artist’s rendition of hypothetical life orientations of species of Limusoceras gen. nov. A, Limusoceras traski gen. et sp. nov. B, Limusoceras japonicum gen. et comb. nov. (Yabe, 1904). C, Limusoceras neojaponicum gen. et sp. nov. Artistic renditions by Connie Resch.

Great to see finally published by Misha Whittingham @deathandtaxa.bsky.social the magnum opus on the heteromorph ammonites of the Vancouver Island! With new genera and species.
🧪 ⚒️ #Geology #Paleobio #EvoBio
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Genetic Drift (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

I've made some small revisions to my Genetic Drift entry for the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy... probably not worth checking out if you have seen the entry before, but if you haven't seen it, might be worth checking out!

plato.stanford.edu/entries/gene...

🐋🌱 #evolsky #evobio #popbio