Browse our latest Evolutionary Biology articles

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.

Adaptational tradeoffs constrain the evolutionary pathways towards antimicrobial resistance, but highly fit mutants are nevertheless likely to arise at any concentration of the drug.

Experiments in sea cucumbers reveal how the physiological responses regulated by a neuropeptide called kisspeptin have evolved.

Wnt/beta-catenin signaling is essential for the specification of dorsal cell fate in amphioxus, suggesting a common evolutionary origin for the formation of the dorsal organizer in chordates.

A family of homing genetic elements that look like inteins but work differently is the progenitor of the endonuclease that enables Saccharomyces cerevisiae to change its mating type.

The gene that allows budding yeast cells to switch their mating type evolved from a newly discovered family of genes named weird HO.

Identification and functional characterization of the first non-chordate kisspeptin neuropeptide system in the sea cucumber indicates the ancient origin of the intracellular signaling and physiological functions of this molecular system.

A new morphological structure evolved through extreme changes in cell height requires novel connections to an extracellular matrix network, which predates the origin of structure.

Genomes take advantage of the gene-duplicating ability of retroelements to birth novel innate immune defense genes.

The origins of the posterior lobe, a recently evolved structure in some species of Drosophila, have become clearer.