New sequence data from choanoflagellates improves our understanding of the genetic changes that occurred along the branch of the evolutionary tree that gave rise to animals.
The symbiotic relationship between Hydra and Chlorella is driven by metabolic co-dependence and characterized by changes in the photobiont genome in terms of lack of genes essential in free-living algae.
Cell biological features are subject to stochastic forces of mutation and random genetic drift, which together cause lineages exposed to identical selection pressures to diverge, and mean phenotypes to deviate from expectations under optimizing selection.
If released in the wild, current CRISPR-based gene drive systems designed to alter populations could spread much farther than intended, despite the evolution of drive resistance.
Jeroen B Smaers, Alan H Turner ... Chet C Sherwood
Multiple independent directional selection events on a neural substrate that underpins domain-general associative abilities partly explains independent occurrences of complex behavior in different lineages of mammals.
Stunning new scan data of an enigmatic fish from the Early Devonian of Australia, Ligulalepis, is identified as a stem osteichthyan, specifically, as the sister taxon to the 'psarolepids' plus crown osteichthyans.
A number of microbial eukaryotes have adapted to low oxygen conditions by acquiring a gene that allows their mitochondrial electron transport chain to continue to function when oxygen is scarce.
