Browse our latest Evolutionary Biology articles

Many different human cell lines, including both normal and cancer cells, appear to converge to a state that contains an unusual number of chromosomes when they are grown in culture.

Human cell lines regress to become ‘de-sexualized’ by reconfiguring to a 2:3 X/A ratio of high fitness, thus shedding light on the evolution of mammalian sex chromosomes.

Experiments and mathematical modelling show that rare nitrogen fixing symbionts invade a population dominated by non-fixing bacteria across plant generations, above a threshold of a combination of ecological factors.

A change in social status can quickly lead to a change in the quality of the seminal fluid produced by a male Chinook salmon as he responds to increased reproductive competition from higher-status males.

Seminal fluid harbours the as yet unknown mechanism that facilitates rapid adjustment of sperm velocity in response to changing sperm competition risk.

Repeated evolution of eye regression in subterranean mammals helps identify genes and regulatory elements involved in visual perception and development of the eye, and predicts candidate sequences with a potential role in ocular disorders.

Host protein homeostasis is a critical force shaping influenza evolution, impacting both the nature of selection on the influenza genome and the accessibility of specific mutational trajectories.

Integrative analysis of a specialized metabolic pathway across multiple non-model species illustrates mechanisms of emergence of chemical novelty in plant metabolism.

Interspecies comparison of transcription factor occupancy during embryogenesis reveals potential co-operative relationships between factors and uncovers the inherent plasticity of developmental enhancers to overcome divergence in transcription factor occupancy.

Despite billions of years of divergence, a majority of prokaryotic genes can functionally replace their essential eukaryotic counterparts, revealing broad preservation of ancestral functions and identifying heme biosynthesis as a near-universally swappable pathway.