Snake venom phosphodiesterase (svPDE), one of the critical venom components, is co-opted from the ancestral ENPP3 gene that makes membrane-anchored ENPP3 into secretory svPDE by using an alternative 5' exon.
Chad M Eliason, Jenna M McCullough ... Michael J Andersen
Treating color patterns in a geometric morphometrics framework reveals rapid rates of color evolution that are explained by a combination of intrinsic organismal features (color variation among patches) and geography within a cosmopolitan radiation of birds.
Olaya Rendueles, Jorge AM de Sousa, Eduardo PC Rocha
The emergence and evolution of different phage-resistance strategies during coevolution between a phage-sensitive strain and a polylysogenic competitor depend on the amount of phage pressure, the fitness costs of resistance, and how these may change at different time scales.
Krithika Venkataraman, Nadav Shai ... Leslie B Vosshall
Two novel, tightly linked, and rapidly evolving genes encoding small secreted proteins are necessary for female mosquitoes to protect their retained eggs during extended periods of drought.
Xinzhu Wei, Christopher R Robles ... Sriram Sankararaman
Genetic variants introgressed into modern humans from Neanderthals tend to be depleted in their contribution to heritable trait variation relative to modern human variants consistent with the action of purifying selection.
Several different mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 genome have occurred more times than expected by chance in either mink or deer infections, suggesting species-specific viral adaptations to these animals.
The mathematical model incorporating new parameters explains multimodal distributions in escape direction (i.e., multiple preferred escape trajectories), which are previously observed in various animal taxa.
Noah H Rose, Athanase Badolo ... Carolyn S McBride
The dengue and yellow fever mosquito first specialized on humans about 5000 years ago, but appears to use the same genes to thrive in urban environments today.
Zane Kliesmete, Lucas Esteban Wange ... Wolfgang Enard
Combining phylogenetic and functional approaches, it is shown that the protein sequence, the proliferative activity, and a regulatory element of TRNP1 co-evolve with brain size and folding.
