The first genomic view of beetle luciferase evolution indicates evolutionary independence of luciferase between fireflies and click-beetles, and provide valuable datasets which will accelerate the discovery of new biotechnological tools.

Life is constrained in its sampling of protein sequence space to catalyze one of the most energetically challenging biochemical reactions.

Increased catalysis has been suggested to be an adaptive trait of enzymes to growth at lower temperature, but systematic analysis suggests that temperature exerts a weak selection pressure on enzyme rate enhancement, with observed variation arising from other evolutionary forces.

Changes in pathways of lipid oxidation, glycolysis, and mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation are common strategies to cope with high-altitude hypoxia, but some changes require longer evolutionary time to arise.

An in-depth metagenomic analysis of possibly the most abundant and widespread microbial lineage in the surface ocean teases apart evolutionary processes that maintain its genomic heterogeneity and biogeography.

Experimental mapping of the joint sequence space of an ancient transcription factor (TF) and its DNA binding sites reveals that epistasis across the molecular interface permitted the evolution of a new and specific TF-DNA complex.

Poxin enzymes are a diverse family of insect and viral 2′3′-cGAMP nucleases, which evolved from self-cleaving RNA virus accessory proteases.

Experimentally reconstructing the evolution of the molecular complex that animals use to orient the mitotic spindle establishes a simple genetic and physical mechanism for the emergence of a function essential for multicellularity.

A nightshade family gene cluster creates phenotypic novelty in trichome defensive metabolites via evolution of lipid metabolic enzymes.

The common view that the mitochondrion endowed eukaryotes with a boost in bioenergetic capacity above that in prokaryotes is inconsistent with a diversity of cellular features.