Editors for Evolutionary Biology

We aim to publish studies that present major 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 welcome also papers that revisit long established evolutionary paradigms in the light of new evidence. Read the latest research in this subject area.

Type

All sections

Senior editors

Claude Desplan

New York University, United States

Claude Desplan, DSc, PhD is a Silver Professor of Biology and Neuro-science 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.
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.
Molly Przeworski

Columbia University, United States

Molly Przeworski received a BA in Mathematics from Princeton University and a PhD from the Committee on Evolutionary Biology at the University of Chicago. Her postdoc was in the Statistics Department of the University of Oxford, and was followed by a two-year stint as a research scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Before moving to Columbia University, she was a faculty member at the University of Chicago as well as, briefly, at Brown University. Her research interests are in understanding the genetic and evolutionary processes that give rise to variation within and between species, and focus on non-model vertebrate species, notably humans.

Expertise
Evolutionary Biology
Genetics and Genomics

Research focus
population genetics
human genetics
evolutionary biology
meiotic recombination
mutation
natural selection
genome-wide association studies

Experimental organism
human
non-model organisms

Competing interests statement
Molly Przeworski's research is currently funded by the NIH and the Agouron Foundation. Dr Przeworski is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and as such an editor for PNAS.
Sara L Sawyer

University of Colorado Boulder, United States

Sara Sawyer is a recognized expert in the birth of new human viruses deriving from animal reservoirs. Dr Sawyer has received national and international awards including the Richard M. Elliott award in virology, the Alfred P. Sloan fellowship, and the Andy Kaplan Prize in Retrovirology. In 2011 she was awarded a PECASE award from President Obama at the White House. She holds a PhD from Cornell University, a BS in Chemical Engineering, and completed postdoctoral training at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

Dr Sawyer is an expert in virology, evolution, model organisms, viral reservoirs, infectious disease diagnostics, and testing and monitoring in COVID-19.

Expertise
Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Evolutionary Biology
Immunology and Inflammation

Research focus
virology
viral host-switching and zoonosis
host-virus arms races
innate immunity
genomics
HIV
SARS-CoV-2
dengue viruses
arenaviruses
influenza viruses

Experimental organism
human
viruses
tissue culture

Competing interests statement
Sara Sawyer is a co-founder of Darwin Biosciences, which develops infectious disease diagnostics. She is a consultant for the U.S. government on biomedical issues relevant to national defense. She receives funding from the National Institutes of Health, the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, and the Department of Defense.
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.
Patricia Wittkopp

University of Michigan, United States

Patricia Wittkopp received a BS from the University of Michigan, a PhD from the University of Wisconsin, and did postdoctoral work at Cornell University. In 2005, she began a faculty position at the University of Michigan, where she is now an Arthur F Thurnau Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, Center for Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics, and LSA Honors Program. Her research investigates the genetic basis of phenotypic evolution, with an emphasis on the evolution of gene expression. Molecular and developmental biology, population and quantitative genetics, genomics and bioinformatics are integrated in this work. She was a Damon Runyon Cancer Research Fellow, an Alfred P Sloan Research Fellow, Guggenheim Fellow, and a recipient of a March of Dimes Starter Scholar Award, the Margaret Dayhoff Mid-Career Award from the Society of Molecular Biology and Evolution, and the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

Expertise
Genetics and Genomics
Evolutionary Biology
Computational and Systems Biology
Developmental Biology
Chromosomes and Gene Expression

Research focus
genetics
development
evolution
gene expression
population genetics
quantitative genetics

Experimental organism
D. melanogaster
S. cerevisiae

Competing interests statement
Patricia Wittkopp has received research support from the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, March of Dimes, Alfred P Sloan Foundation, John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, and Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. She is currently an Associate Editor of Molecular Biology and Evolution and GENETICS, and serves on the Advisory Editorial Board of Trends in Genetics.

Reviewing editors

David B Allison

Indiana University, United States

Expertise
Medicine
Genetics and Genomics
Epidemiology and Global Health
Computational and Systems Biology
Evolutionary Biology

Research focus
experimental design
statistics
longevity
biostatistics
obesity
nutrition
senescence
research rigour
science integrity
Regina S Baucom

University of Michigan, United States

Expertise
Plant Biology
Evolutionary Biology
Genetics and Genomics

Research focus
plant adaptation
evolutionary ecology
evolutionary genetics
artificial evolution
plant mating

Experimental organism
plants
Nir Ben-Tal

Tel Aviv University, Israel

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Computational and Systems Biology
Evolutionary Biology
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics

Research focus
computational structural biology
structural biology
structural bioinformatics
protein universe
primordial peptides
membrane proteins
transporters
drug discovery
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
Catherine Carr

University of Maryland, United States

Expertise
Neuroscience
Evolutionary Biology

Research focus
auditory
evolution
temporal coding
comparative

Experimental organism
birds
reptiles
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
Sarah E Cobey

University of Chicago, United States

Expertise
Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Ecology
Evolutionary Biology
Epidemiology and Global Health
Medicine

Research focus
B cells
coevolution
infectious disease dynamics
influenza
mathematical modelling
vaccination
Graham Coop

University of California, Davis, United States

Expertise
Genetics and Genomics
Evolutionary Biology

Research focus
population genetics
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
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
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
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
Michael Doebeli

University of British Columbia, Canada

Expertise
Computational and Systems Biology
Ecology
Evolutionary Biology

Research focus
mathematical modelling
evolution of diversity
social insects
ecology and evolution of microbial communities
David Donoso

Escuela Politécnica Nacional, Ecuador

Expertise
Ecology
Evolutionary Biology

Research focus
biodiversity
ecosystem ecology
community ecology
global warming
soil organisms
tropical forests
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
Nels C Elde

University of Utah, United States

Expertise
Evolutionary Biology
Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Immunology and Inflammation

Research focus
host-microbe interactions
evolutionary genetics
virus evolution
experimental evolution
innate immunity

Experimental organism
primates
poxviruses
zebrafish
Tatiana Giraud

Université Paris-Sud, France

Expertise
Evolutionary Biology

Research focus
fungi
domestication
adaptation
genomics
plant pathogen
sex chromosomes
mating systems
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
Emilia Huerta-Sanchez

Brown University, United States

Expertise
Ecology
Evolutionary Biology
Genetics and Genomics

Research focus
natural selection
population demography
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
Ammie K Kalan

Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany

Expertise
Ecology
Evolutionary Biology

Research focus
acoustic monitoring
animal communication
animal behaviour
conservation
primatology
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
Laurent Keller

University of Lausanne, Switzerland

Expertise
Ecology
Evolutionary Biology

Research focus
evolution
social behaviour
ants
genetics
social networks

Experimental organism
ants
social insects
D. melanogaster
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
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
Christian R Landry

Universite Laval, Canada

Expertise
Computational and Systems Biology
Evolutionary Biology
Cell Biology
Genetics and Genomics

Research focus
systems biology
evolution
genomics
synthetic biology
microbiology

Experimental organism
S. cerevisiae
D. melanogaster
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
David Lentink

University of Groningen, Netherlands

Expertise
Ecology
Evolutionary Biology
Physics of Living Systems

Research focus
animal locomotion
comparative biomechanics
animal navigation
movement ecology
evolutionary biology
biofluids
biophysics
bioinspired robotics
bioinspiration & biomimetics

Experimental organism
birds
insects
bats
plant seeds
fish
Mia T Levine

University of Pennsylvania, United States

Expertise
Chromosomes and Gene Expression
Evolutionary Biology
Genetics and Genomics

Research focus
evolution
conflict
heterochromatin
telomere
phylogenomics
paternal chromatin
epigenetics

Experimental organism
D. melanogaster
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
Daniel R Matute

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, United States

Expertise
Ecology
Evolutionary Biology
Genetics and Genomics

Research focus
genetic mechanisms
evolutionary consequences
reproductive isolation
speciation
Philipp W Messer

Cornell University, United States

Expertise
Evolutionary Biology
Genetics and Genomics

Research focus
evolutionary biology
population genetics
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
Alan Moses

University of Toronto, Canada

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
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
Magnus Nordborg

Gregor Mendel Institute of Molecular Plant Biology, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austria

Expertise
Genetics and Genomics
Plant Biology
Evolutionary Biology

Research focus
adaptation
population genetics
evolutionary genetics
genetics
genomics
genome-wide association studies
epigenetics

Experimental organism
Arabidopsis
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
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
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
Daniel Ortiz-Barrientos

The University of Queensland, Australia

Expertise
Ecology
Evolutionary Biology
Genetics and Genomics

Research focus
genetics of speciation and adaptation
replicated evolution of traits and reproductive isolation
early stages of speciation and the origin of ecotypes
molecular causes of reproductive isolation and adaptation
quantitative genetics of ecologically important traits and fitness
role of sexual selection on speciation
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
Antonis Rokas

Vanderbilt University, United States

Expertise
Evolutionary Biology
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
phylogenomics
genome evolution in fungi and animals
evolution of fungal secondary/specialized metabolic pathways
evolution of mammalian pregnancy
eukaryotic genome evolution
evolution of opportunistic pathogenicity

Experimental organism
S. cerevisiae
mammals
Aspergillus
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
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
Karen Sears

University of California, Los Angeles, United States

Expertise
Evolutionary Biology

Research focus
mammalian evolutionary developmental biology
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
Alex Sigal

Africa Health Research Institute, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Expertise
Computational and Systems Biology
Evolutionary Biology
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
SARS-CoV-2
COVID-19
antibody neutralisation
viral evolution
experimental evolution
cell-to-cell viral spread
Mashaal Sohail

National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico

Expertise
Computational and Systems Biology
Evolutionary Biology
Genetics and Genomics
Epidemiology and Global Health

Research focus
population genetics
complex traits
natural selection
population structure
demographic history
genomics
equity
anthropological genetics
Andrea Sweigart

University of Georgia, United States

Expertise
Evolutionary Biology
Genetics and Genomics
Plant Biology

Research focus
speciation
quantitative genetics
population genomics
plant evolution
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
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
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
Kevin Verstrepen

VIB-KU Leuven Center for Microbiology, Belgium

Expertise
Evolutionary Biology
Genetics and Genomics
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
yeast
aroma
fermentation
genomics
molecular evolution

Experimental organism
S. cerevisiae
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