Editors for Evolutionary Biology

We aim to review studies that present new insights into patterns and processes in any field of evolutionary biology. This includes comparative genomics, population genetics, ecology, behavior, morphology, evolution of developmental processes, palaeontology, experimental evolution and evolutionary theory. We also welcome papers that revisit long established evolutionary paradigms in the light of new evidence. Read the latest research in this subject area.

Senior editors

  1. Claude Desplan

    New York University, United States

    Claude Desplan, DSc, PhD is a Silver Professor of Biology and Neuroscience at NYU and an Affiliate Professor at the CGSB at NYU in Abu Dhabi. Dr. Desplan was born in Algeria and was trained at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in St. Cloud, France. He received his DSc at INSERM in Paris in 1983 working with M.S. Moukhtar and M. Thomasset on calcium regulation. He joined Pat O’Farrell at UCSF as a postdoc where he demonstrated that the homeodomain, a conserved signature of many developmental genes, is a DNA binding motif. In 1987, he joined the Faculty of Rockefeller University as an HHMI Assistant/Associate Investigator to pursue structural studies of the homeodomain and the evolution of axis formation.

    In 1999, Dr. Desplan joined NYU where he investigates the generation of neural diversity using the Drosophila visual system. His team has described the molecular mechanisms that pattern the eye and showed how stochastic decisions contribute to the diversification of photoreceptors. It also investigates the development and function of the optic lobes where neuronal diversity is generated by spatio-temporal patterning of neuroblasts, a mechanism that also applies to cortical development in mammals. Recently, his lab has also provided a functional understanding of the neuronal and computational mechanisms underlying motion detection.

    His laboratory also uses ‘evo-devo’ approaches to understand the mechanisms by which sensory systems adapt to different ecological conditions, from flies to ants to butterflies.

    Dr. Desplan serves on multiple scientific advisory boards and committees for funding agencies. He is an elected member of the AAAS, of EMBO, the New York Academy of Sciences as well as the US National Academy of Sciences.

    Expertise
    Developmental Biology
    Evolutionary Biology
    Neuroscience
    Research focus
    development neurobiology
    evo-devo
    vision
    stochasticity in development
    rhodopsin
    aging and caste determination (ants)
    Experimental organism
    D. melanogaster
    ants
    insects
    butterflies
    wasps
    flies
    Competing interests statement
    Dr. Desplan has been a member of the Board of Reviewing Editor for Science for the last 10 years (non-renumerated). He is an academic editor for PLOS Biology and PLOS Genetics (non-renumerated). Dr. Desplan occasionally serves as academic editor for other scientific journals (e.g. PNAS). He is a consultant for the Khalifa Center for Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology Al Ain, UAE. Dr. Desplan receives funding from the NIH and the NYU Abu Dhabi Center for Genomics and Systems Biology.
  2. Alan Moses

    University of Toronto, Canada

    Alan M Moses is currently Professor and Canada Research Chair in Computational Biology in the Departments of Cell & Systems Biology and Computer Science at the University of Toronto. His research touches on many of the major areas in computational biology, including DNA and protein sequence analysis, phylogenetic models, population genetics, expression profiles, regulatory network simulations and image analysis. Recent areas of focus include machine learning applied to microscope images, protein and genome sequences, to better understand subcellular localization, intrinsically disordered regions and regulatory sequences in non-coding DNA.

    Expertise
    Computational and Systems Biology
    Evolutionary Biology
    Genetics and Genomics
    Research focus
    data analysis
    bioinformatics
    molecular evolution
    intrinsically disordered proteins
    signaling pathways
    regulatory networks
    Experimental organism
    S. cerevisiae
    Competing interests statement
    - Current research funding: Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), National Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), Canada Research Chairs (CRC)- Other editorial roles: Associate Editor, Genetics
  3. George H Perry

    Pennsylvania State University, United States

    George Perry received his PhD in 2008 from Arizona State University, and did postdoctoral work at the University of Chicago. In 2011, he began a faculty position at Penn State University, where he is now Associate Professor of Anthropology and Biology, Chair of the Bioinformatics and Genomics Graduate Degree Program, and member of the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences. His research interests focus on human evolution, evolutionary ecology, and evolutionary medicine, and how human behavior and biology have affected non-human evolutionary biology. Research methods and theory from anthropology, evolutionary biology, parasitology, and population, comparative, functional, and paleo (ancient DNA) genomics are integrated in this work. He has received the Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation, among others.

    Expertise
    Evolutionary Biology
    Ecology
    Genetics and Genomics
    Research focus
    evolutionary biology
    population genomics
    evolutionary ecology
    paleogenomics
    ancient DNA
    human evolution
    Experimental organism
    human
    non-human primates
    parasites
    Competing interests statement
    George Perry has received research support from the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, Wenner-Gren Foundation, and L.S.B. Leakey Foundation. He is currently an Associate Editor of Evolutionary Anthropology.
  4. Detlef Weigel

    Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, Germany

    Detlef Weigel received his PhD in 1988 from the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology. After postdoctoral work at the California Institute of Technology, he joined the faculty of the Salk Institute in 1993. Since 2002, he has been director of the Department of Molecular Biology at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology. His current research interests focus on natural genetic variation and evolutionary genomics of plants. Examples of recent important projects are the 1001 Genomes project for Arabidopsis thaliana, and the systematic dissection of deleterious epistasis between Arabidopsis strains due to autoimmunity. Among the awards he has received are the Young Investigator Award of the National Science Foundation, the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Award of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, and the Otto Bayer Award. He is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and the Royal Society.

    Expertise
    Plant Biology
    Genetics and Genomics
    Evolutionary Biology
    Research focus
    plants
    genomics
    evolution
    genetic variation
    evolutionary genomics
    adaptation
    microbiome
    Experimental organism
    A. thaliana
    Competing interests statement
    Detlef Weigel has received funding from the Max Planck Society, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, the Foundation of the State of Baden-Württemberg, the German Ministry for Education and Research, the European Commission, the Human Frontiers Science Program Organization, and several US Federal agencies. He serves on the Editorial Boards of Annual Review of Cell and Developmental Biology and Genome Biology. He is Chair of EMBO Council, and is serving or has recently served on the Advisory Boards of the Epigenomics of Plants International Consortium, Bayer Crop Science, The Arabidopsis Information Resource, Flanders Institute of Biotechnology, Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory, and the Sainsbury Laboratory. He is a co-founder of Computomics and CeMet.

Reviewing editors

  1. Fernán Agüero

    Universidad Nacional de San Martín, Argentina

    Expertise
    Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
    Chromosomes and Gene Expression
    Computational and Systems Biology
    Evolutionary Biology
    Genetics and Genomics
    Immunology and Inflammation
    Microbiology and Infectious Disease
    Research focus
    genomics
    drug discovery
    diagnostics
    infectious diseases
    microbial eukaryotes
    bioinformatics
  2. Benjamin K Blackman

    University of California, Berkeley, United States

    Expertise
    Evolutionary Biology
    Genetics and Genomics
    Plant Biology
    Research focus
    evolutionary genetics
    evolution of development
    phenotypic variation
    domestication
    local adaptation
    plant reproduction
  3. Shai Carmi

    The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel

    Expertise
    Genetics and Genomics
    Evolutionary Biology
    Epidemiology and Global Health
    Research focus
    ancient DNA
    polygenic scores
    human population genetics
    genetic genealogy
    coalescent theory
    demographic inference
    preimplantation genetic testing
    forensic DNA
  4. Catherine Carr

    University of Maryland, United States

    Expertise
    Neuroscience
    Evolutionary Biology
    Research focus
    auditory
    evolution
    temporal coding
    comparative
    Experimental organism
    birds
    reptiles
  5. Vincent Castric

    Université de Lille, France

    Expertise
    Evolutionary Biology
    Genetics and Genomics
    Plant Biology
    Research focus
    evolutionary genomics
    population genetics
    small regulatory RNAs
    mating systems
    transposable elements
    gene regulatory networks
    self-incompatibility
    receptor-ligand interaction
    Experimental organism
    Arabidopsis
  6. Frank Chan

    Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, University of Groningen, Netherlands

    Expertise
    Developmental Biology
    Evolutionary Biology
    Genetics and Genomics
    Research focus
    evolution
    adaptation
    complex traits
    transcriptional regulation
    non-model organisms
    selective sweeps
    single-cell techniques
    haplotypes
    genomes
    genetic mapping
    Experimental organism
    mouse
  7. Ariel Chipman

    The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel

    Expertise
    Developmental Biology
    Evolutionary Biology
    Research focus
    segmentation
    Cambrian explosion
    evo-devo
    body plan evolution
    head evolution
    molting
    Experimental organism
    arthropods
  8. Vaughn S Cooper

    University of Pittsburgh, United States

    Expertise
    Evolutionary Biology
    Microbiology and Infectious Disease
    Genetics and Genomics
    Research focus
    experimental evolution
    antimicrobial resistance
    biofilms
    education
    adaptation
    cancer
    Experimental organism
    Pseudomonas
    E. coli
    Burkholderia
    Acinetobacter
  9. Virginie Courtier-Orgogozo

    Université Paris-Diderot CNRS, France

    Expertise
    Evolutionary Biology
    Genetics and Genomics
    Research focus
    genotype-phenotype
    evolutionary genetics
    morphological evolution
    physiological evolution
    gene drive
    Experimental organism
    D. melanogaster
  10. Noah J Cowan

    The Johns Hopkins University, United States

    Expertise
    Neuroscience
    Evolutionary Biology
    Computational and Systems Biology
    Research focus
    sensorimotor control
    active sensing
    navigation
    biomechanics
    robotics
    control theory
    motor learning
  11. Samuel L Díaz-Muñoz

    University of California, Davis, United States

    Expertise
    Evolutionary Biology
    Genetics and Genomics
    Microbiology and Infectious Disease
    Research focus
    social evolution
    reassortment
    experimental evolution
    genomics
    sex
    environmental microbiology
    behavior
  12. Dieter Ebert

    University of Basel, Switzerland

    Expertise
    Evolutionary Biology
    Genetics and Genomics
    Research focus
    coevolution
    experimental evolution
    host-parasite interactions
    population genetics
    balancing selection
    evolution
    biogeography
    Experimental organism
    Daphnia
  13. Eran Elhaik

    Lund University, Sweden

    Expertise
    Evolutionary Biology
    Genetics and Genomics
    Research focus
    bioinformatics
    biogeography
    population genomics
    population genetics
    molecular evolution
    paleogenetics
    forensics
  14. David Enard

    University of Arizona, United States

    Expertise
    Evolutionary Biology
    Genetics and Genomics
    Research focus
    population genomics
    natural selection
    molecular evolution
    genomic adaptation
    host-virus interactions
    host adaptation to pathogens
    ecological genomics of adaptation
  15. Alexandre Fournier-Level

    The University of Melbourne, Australia

    Expertise
    Genetics and Genomics
    Plant Biology
    Evolutionary Biology
    Research focus
    natural variation
    quantitative genetics
    population genetics
    invasion
    weeds
    genomic prediction
  16. Ziyue Gao

    University of Pennsylvania, United States

    Expertise
    Evolutionary Biology
    Genetics and Genomics
    Chromosomes and Gene Expression
    Research focus
    population genetics
    human genetics
    mutation rate
    natural selection
    genetic variation
    ancient DNA
    Experimental organism
    human
    non-human primates
  17. Rosalyn Gloag

    University of Sidney, Australia

    Expertise
    Evolutionary Biology
    Genetics and Genomics
    Ecology
    Research focus
    invasive species
    population genetics
    brood parasitism
    social parasitism
    eusociality
    Experimental organism
    birds
    bees
  18. Mariana Gómez-Schiavon

    Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico

    Expertise
    Computational and Systems Biology
    Evolutionary Biology
    Research focus
    systems biology
    evolution dynamics
    gene regulatory circuits
    mathematical modeling
    nonlinear dynamics
    epigenetics
    bistability
    circadian rhythms
    oscillations
    homeostasis
    feedback control
  19. Martin Graña

    Institut Pasteur de Montevideo, Uruguay

    Expertise
    Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
    Computational and Systems Biology
    Evolutionary Biology
    Physics of Living Systems
    Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics
    Research focus
    protein 3D structure
    structural bioinformatics
    structure/function relationships
    evolution
  20. Emilia Huerta-Sanchez

    Brown University, United States

    Expertise
    Ecology
    Evolutionary Biology
    Genetics and Genomics
    Research focus
    natural selection
    population demography
  21. Nizar Ibrahim

    University of Portsmouth, United States

    Expertise
    Ecology
    Evolutionary Biology
    Research focus
    vertebrate palaeontology
    morphology anatomy
    dinosaur evolution
  22. Yaroslav Ispolatov

    Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Chile

    Expertise
    Computational and Systems Biology
    Ecology
    Evolutionary Biology
    Physics of Living Systems
    Research focus
    evolution
    diversification
    adaptive dynamics
    ecology
    systems biology
    CRISPR
  23. Gaspar Jekely

    University of Exeter, United Kingdom

    Expertise
    Genetics and Genomics
    Neuroscience
    Evolutionary Biology
    Research focus
    nervous system evolution
    marine larvae
    cilia
    sensory systems
    eukaryogenesis
    neuromodulation
    Experimental organism
    P. dumerilii
    C. hemisphaerica
    N. vectensis
    Trichoplax
  24. Ammie K Kalan

    University of Victoria, Canada

    Expertise
    Ecology
    Evolutionary Biology
    Research focus
    acoustic monitoring
    animal communication
    animal behaviour
    conservation
    primatology
  25. Merijn R Kant

    University of Amsterdam, Netherlands

    Expertise
    Ecology
    Plant Biology
    Evolutionary Biology
    Research focus
    plant defense
    biological control
    adaptation
    co-evolution
    pest formation
    effectors
    susceptibility
    resistance
    defense suppression
    Experimental organism
    insects
    mites
    plants
  26. Genevieve Konopka

    The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, United States

    Expertise
    Neuroscience
    Genetics and Genomics
    Evolutionary Biology
    Research focus
    comparative genomics
    autism
    schizophrenia
    neurogenomics
    cognition
    language
    molecular neuroscience
    Experimental organism
    human
    mouse
  27. Shigehiro Kuraku

    National Institute of Genetics, Japan

    Expertise
    Evolutionary Biology
    Genetics and Genomics
    Developmental Biology
    Research focus
    molecular evolution
    gene family evolution
    developmental roles of duplicated genes
    early vertebrate genome evolution
    Experimental organism
    reptiles
    cyclostomes
    chondrichthyans
  28. Dan Larhammar

    Uppsala University, Sweden

    Expertise
    Medicine
    Evolutionary Biology
    Neuroscience
    Cell Biology
    Chromosomes and Gene Expression
    Genetics and Genomics
    Research focus
    evolution
    gene/genome duplications
    cellular and molecular neuroscience
    G protein-coupled receptors (GPCR)
    neuropeptides
    endocrine peptides
    phototransduction
    ligand-gated ion channels
    Experimental organism
    human
    zebrafish
  29. Andrei Lupas

    Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, Germany

    Expertise
    Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
    Computational and Systems Biology
    Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics
    Evolutionary Biology
    Research focus
    bacterial surface proteins
    bioinformatics
    coiled coils
    protein design
    protein evolution
    protein structure
    transmembrane signal tranduction
  30. Vincent J Lynch

    University at Buffalo, State University of New York, United States

    Expertise
    Chromosomes and Gene Expression
    Evolutionary Biology
    Genetics and Genomics
    Research focus
    evolutionary medicine
    evolutionary cell biology
    cancer
    gene regulation
    developmental evolution (DevoEvo)
    pregnancy
  31. David Marjanovic

    Museum für Naturkunde, Germany

    Expertise
    Ecology
    Evolutionary Biology
    Research focus
    vertebrate palaeontology
    morphology
  32. John McCutcheon

    Arizona State University, United States

    Expertise
    Cell Biology
    Evolutionary Biology
    Genetics and Genomics
    Microbiology and Infectious Disease
    Research focus
    organelles
    genome evolution
    evolutionary cell biology
    insects
    bacteria
    intracellular bacteria
    endosymbiosis
  33. Sara Mitri

    University of Lausanne, Switzerland

    Expertise
    Ecology
    Evolutionary Biology
    Microbiology and Infectious Disease
    Research focus
    microbial ecology and evolution
    mathematical modelling
    synthetic ecology
    interspecies interactions
  34. Richard A Neher

    University of Basel, Switzerland

    Expertise
    Computational and Systems Biology
    Physics of Living Systems
    Evolutionary Biology
    Research focus
    population genetics
    evolution of RNA viruses
    bioinformatics
  35. Armita Nourmohammad

    University of Washington, United States

    Expertise
    Computational and Systems Biology
    Evolutionary Biology
    Physics of Living Systems
    Immunology and Inflammation
    Research focus
    population genetics
    computational immunology
    adaptive immunity
    statistical physics
    deep mutational scanning
    information theory
    statistical inference
    gene expression evolution
    Experimental organism
    D. melanogaster
    human
    viruses
  36. Lauren O'Connell

    Stanford University, United States

    Expertise
    Ecology
    Evolutionary Biology
    Genetics and Genomics
    Neuroscience
    Research focus
    behavior
    evolution
    predator-prey interactions
    toxins
    communication
    sensory systems
    Experimental organism
    amphibians
    lizards
    fish
  37. C. Brandon Ogbunugafor

    Yale University, United States

    Expertise
    Computational and Systems Biology
    Evolutionary Biology
    Epidemiology and Global Health
    Physics of Living Systems
    Microbiology and Infectious Disease
    Research focus
    disease ecology
    microbial evolution
    population genetics
    epidemiology
    evolutionary medicine
    Experimental organism
    E. coli
    human
    P. falciparum
    S. cerevisiae
    viruses
  38. David A Paz-Garcia

    Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas del Noroeste (CIBNOR), Mexico

    Expertise
    Chromosomes and Gene Expression
    Computational and Systems Biology
    Ecology
    Evolutionary Biology
    Genetics and Genomics
    Microbiology and Infectious Disease
    Plant Biology
    Research focus
    marine life
    coral reefs
    phylogenomics
    population genomics
    morphometrics
    gene expression
    statistics
    coding
  39. Marianoel Pereira-Gómez

    Institut Pasteur de Montevideo, Uruguay

    Expertise
    Evolutionary Biology
    Genetics and Genomics
    Microbiology and Infectious Disease
    Research focus
    viruses
    evolution
    genetics
    mutation rate
    mutagenesis
    experimental evolution
    virology
    molecular biology
  40. Wenfeng Qian

    Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

    Expertise
    Evolutionary Biology
    Genetics and Genomics
    Research focus
    codon usage
    yeast genomics
    mutational spectrum
    fitness landscape
    gene duplication
    translational regulation
  41. Paul Rainey

    Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Germany

    Expertise
    Ecology
    Evolutionary Biology
    Microbiology and Infectious Disease
    Plant Biology
    Research focus
    adaptive radiation
    evolution of individuality
    evolutionary genetics
    ecological genetics
    emergence of infectious diseases
    forecasting evolution
  42. Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra

    University of California, Davis, United States

    Expertise
    Plant Biology
    Evolutionary Biology
    Genetics and Genomics
    Research focus
    evolutionary genetics
    domestication
    local adaptation
    transposable elements
  43. Irene Salinas

    University of New Mexico, United States

    Expertise
    Immunology and Inflammation
    Neuroscience
    Evolutionary Biology
    Microbiology and Infectious Disease
    Research focus
    mucosal immunology
    neuroimmunology
    host-microbe interactions
    evolutionary immunology
  44. Bernhard Schmid

    University of Zurich, Switzerland

    Expertise
    Ecology
    Plant Biology
    Evolutionary Biology
    Research focus
    plant ecology
    evolutionary ecology
    biodiversity
    ecosystem functioning
    community ecology
    experimental ecology
    Experimental organism
    seed plants
    grassland
    forest
  45. Wenying Shou

    University College London, United Kingdom

    Expertise
    Computational and Systems Biology
    Ecology
    Evolutionary Biology
    Genetics and Genomics
    Research focus
    quantitative biology
    mathematical biology
    evolutionary biology
    synthetic biology
    molecular genetics
    evolution of cooperation
    computer simulations
    Experimental organism
    S. cerevisiae
  46. Kristin Tessmar-Raible

    University of Vienna, Austria

    Expertise
    Cell Biology
    Developmental Biology
    Ecology
    Evolutionary Biology
    Genetics and Genomics
    Neuroscience
    Research focus
    chronobiology
    marine
    photobiology
    rhythms
    clocks
    physiology
    Experimental organism
    platynereis
    clunio
    danio
    medakafish
    oryzias
  47. Jenny Tung

    Duke University, United States

    Expertise
    Ecology
    Evolutionary Biology
    Genetics and Genomics
    Research focus
    social behaviour
    evolutionary ecology
    evolutionary functional genomics
    hybridization
    Experimental organism
    primates
  48. Dario Riccardo Valenzano

    Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing, Germany

    Expertise
    Evolutionary Biology
    Genetics and Genomics
    Immunology and Inflammation
    Microbiology and Infectious Disease
    Research focus
    biology of aging
    microbiome
    killifish
    neutral evolution
    mutation load
    comparative genomics
    immunosenescence
  49. Justin Yeakel

    University of California, Merced, United States

    Expertise
    Ecology
    Evolutionary Biology
    Research focus
    theoretical ecology
    population dynamics
    macroevolution
    paleobiology
    complex systems
  50. Min Zhu

    Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

    Expertise
    Ecology
    Evolutionary Biology
    Research focus
    paleobiology
    vertebrate paleontology
    evolutionary biology
    systematics
    morphology
    paleobiogeography
    ichthyology
    Experimental organism
    E. primordialis
    G. oneiros
    Q. rostrata