Tianhua Liao

Conflicts and coalitions among selfish toxin-antidote elements shape the evolution of hyperdivergent haplotypes

The paper investigates genetic conflict between toxin-antidote elements in C. tropicalis, revealing their role in shaping hyperdivergent haplotypes through competition and recombination.

Evolution of an Aurora Kinase A Inhibitor from an Essential tRNA Synthetase

The paper shows how a duplicated tRNA synthetase evolved into a novel toxin by losing its ancestral function and acquiring a new role in targeting Aurora kinase A.

From genomic decay to functional advantage: Traits of a persistent, thermally beneficial coral probiotic

The paper identifies a coral probiotic strain with enhanced thermal tolerance and characterizes its genomic and functional traits associated with long-term host association.

Evolutionary genomics predicts probiotic persistence in corals

This paper identifies a probiotic bacterium with persistent colonization in corals using evolutionary genomic markers, showing improved thermal tolerance and survival during bleaching.

Correlating phylogenetic and functional diversity of the nod-free but nodulating Bradyrhizobium phylogroup

The paper expands the diversity of nod-free Bradyrhizobium strains and shows that NF-independent nodulation is common in this supergroup.

Dating ammonia-oxidizing bacteria with abundant eukaryotic fossils

This study estimates the origin of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) using eukaryotic fossils and Bayesian dating, finding they emerged between 2.1 and 1.9 billion years ago.

tmap: topological analysis of population-scale microbiome data

tmap provides a topological framework for analyzing population-scale microbiome data to identify driver species and host-microbiome associations.