The coexistence of ancestral and innovative functions is possible and fosters evolutionary innovation in events involving the acquisition of whole protein domains.
A phylogeny of all major groups of flatworms based on hundreds of genes sheds new light the early evolution of this important metazoan phylum, with particular significance for the original of vertebrate parasitism.
Integrative analysis of a specialized metabolic pathway across multiple non-model species illustrates mechanisms of emergence of chemical novelty in plant metabolism.
A long-term evolution experiment with Escherichia coli shows that the appearance and optimization of a new trait can require both co-opting existing cellular pathways for new roles and reversing a history of previous adaptation.
Transposable elements and gene amplifications can provide variation needed for novel trait refinement and adaptation to new niches, though a recalcitrant organism-environment mismatch may persist.
Single-cell RNA-sequencing and germline substitutions provide novel insights into how testis is a hotspot for evolutionary innovation of genes, expression, and mutation at the single-cell level.
The foundations of genomic complexity in multicellular animals have deep roots in their unicellular prehistory, both in terms of innovations in gene content, as well as the evolutionary dynamics of genome architecture.
The great pond snail is a multipurpose model organism and a contemporary choice for addressing a wide range of biological questions, problems and phenomena in the laboratory and the field.