Evolution and Genetic Dynamics

Single capsid mutations modulating phage adsorption, persistence, and plaque morphology shape evolutionary trajectories in {Phi}X174

This study shows how single capsid mutations in {Phi}X174 phage alter adsorption, persistence, and plaque morphology, shaping evolutionary trajectories under different transfer conditions.

Assessing nonlinearities in the GFP random mutagenesis landscape using the Power Transform

The paper applies Power Transform methods to a large GFP mutagenesis landscape to assess their effectiveness in reducing epistasis, finding mixed results depending on the scale and type of transform used.

Contrasting mutation patterns in haploid and diploid cells from two yeast species

The paper compares mutation rates in haploid and diploid cells of two yeast species, finding higher mutation rates in the rare cell type, supporting the drift barrier hypothesis.

Rapid adaptation and increased genetic parallelism in experimental metapopulations of Pseudomonas aeruginosa

This study shows that metapopulation topology can accelerate adaptation and increase genetic parallelism in Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Evolutionary persistence and divergence of the tdk killer meiotic driver family

The paper identifies divergent tdk1 homologs in fission yeast as active killer meiotic drivers, showing functional divergence and long-term evolutionary persistence.

Mutational Biases and Selection in Mitochondrial Genomes: Insights from a Comparative Analysis of Natural and Experimental Populations of Caenorhabditis elegans

The paper analyzes mtDNA polymorphism in natural C. elegans populations and compares it to experimental lines, finding differences in mutational biases and evidence of natural selection.

Population structure reverses selection of variants with proportionally scaled birth and death rates

The paper shows that in structured populations, variants with proportionally scaled birth and death rates can be advantageous or disadvantageous, altering their fixation probabilities compared to neutral mutants.

Cysteine protease cathepsin B promotes high population density-induced mutagenesis, driving genome evolution and competitive growth in response to the crowding stress

This study shows that CPR-4, a homologue of human cathepsin B, induces DNA damage and mutagenesis in C. elegans under crowding stress, leading to increased mutation rates and competitive growth advantages.

Protein structure shapes natural genetic variation and de novo adaptation

The paper shows that protein structure predicts genetic variation and de novo adaptation by analyzing yeast, plants, and humans, and validates predictions with experimental evolution.

Resource ratio fluctuations drive the evolution of microbial metabolic strategies

The paper shows that resource ratio fluctuations drive the evolution of microbial metabolic strategies, with balanced environments favoring specialists and imbalanced ones favoring generalists.

Timing the initiation of sex: Delay mechanisms alter fitness outcomes in a rotifer population model

The paper models rotifer population dynamics with a 'mictic block' mechanism, finding that shorter blocks are more successful under variable growing season lengths.

Absence of Mothers Curse for performance traits among divergent mtDNAs in heterozygous nuclear backgrounds in Drosophila

The paper tests the Mothers Curse hypothesis by comparing mtDNA effects on performance traits in Drosophila across different nuclear backgrounds, finding greater phenotypic variation in females than males, contrary to the hypothesis.

Evidence for Toxin-Encoding Coinfections Driving Intransitive Dynamics Between Allelopathic Phenotypes in Natural Yeast Populations

The paper shows that toxin-producing yeast strains are outcompeted by resistant strains, leading to intransitive dynamics driven by coinfections in natural yeast populations.

Hypermutable hotspot enables the rapid evolution of self/non-self recognition genes in Dictyostelium

The paper investigates the rapid evolution of self/non-self recognition genes in Dictyostelium by analyzing genome sequences and identifying a hypermutable hotspot in the tgrBC locus.

No molecular evidence for Muller's ratchet in mitochondrial genomes

The paper re-evaluates evidence for Muller's ratchet in mitochondrial genomes using three species pairs, finding strong selection in mtDNA and no ratchet-like mutation accumulation.

Effects of rescaling forward-in-time population genetic simulations

This study evaluates how rescaling population genetic simulations affects evolutionary dynamics in Drosophila-like populations, finding biases in summary statistics under certain conditions.

Higher levels of antibiotic resistance are less competitive: the hidden ecological cost of no-metabolic cost resistance

This study shows that highly antibiotic-resistant bacteria can inadvertently help susceptible strains survive, revealing an ecological cost to extreme resistance that limits its spread.

The Variability of Evolvability: Properties of Dynamic Fitness Landscapes Determine How Phenotypic Variability Evolves

This study investigates how environmental variability affects the evolution of genotype-to-phenotype maps and evolvability across different fitness landscapes.

Stuck in the cell: trapping viruses in infected cells was a frequent adaptation strategy in human hosts

The paper identifies viral release as a hotspot of strong human adaptation, where host proteins trap new virions to prevent further infection.

Evolve and resequence provides a granular view of micro-evolution under different mating systems in Mimulus guttatus

The paper uses experimental evolution to study micro-evolution in Mimulus guttatus under different mating systems and identifies genomic regions and candidate genes associated with selfing.

Population Genetics of Fluctuating Selection among Individuals (FSI): a New Paradigm of Molecular Evolution

This paper introduces the FSI theory, showing that fluctuating selection among individuals affects molecular evolution, leading to new neutrality concepts and reinterpretations of substitution rates in mammals.

Impact of fluctuating environments on the fitness and robustness of evolving laboratory and industrial Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains

This study compares the fitness and robustness of two yeast strains under fluctuating and constant environments, finding that the lab strain improved fitness but not robustness, while the industrial strain became more robust.

Evolutionary fingerprinting of protein-coding genes in RNA viruses

The paper analyzes evolutionary patterns of protein-coding genes in RNA viruses, finding no distinction between surface-exposed and non-exposed proteins but significant clustering between enveloped and non-enveloped viruses.

Intracellular interactions shape antiviral resistance outcomes in poliovirus via eco-evolutionary feedback

This paper develops an intra-host eco-evolutionary model of poliovirus under pocapavir treatment, showing that antiviral potency must balance immediate viral suppression with preserving coinfection to prevent resistance.

The Evolution of Human Ageing Under the Shadow of Demographic Transition

This paper uses demographic data to show how human ageing has changed due to demographic transition, with reduced selection pressure on late-life traits.

Strong genotype-by-genotype and genotype-by-environment interactions induced by antibiotic resistance mutations

This study examines how genetic background and temperature affect the fitness effects of antibiotic resistance mutations across three bacterial species, finding strong genotype-by-genotype and genotype-by-environment interactions.

{Phi}X174 bacteriophage viability predicted by protein biophysical modeling

The paper evaluates predictive models for {Phi}X174 bacteriophage viability using biophysical and molecular modeling approaches, finding that large-effect mutations are highly informative for predicting phenotypes.

Attenuation of HIV severity by slightly deleterious mutations can explain the long-term trajectory of virulence evolution.

The paper shows that slightly deleterious mutations, rather than a few large-effect mutations, explain slow viral load changes and heritability in HIV evolution.

Volatile but persistent co-existence of self-compatibility and self-incompatibility in plants

The paper models the evolutionary dynamics of self-incompatibility and self-compatibility in plants, revealing a phase diagram with three mating modes and showing pollen limitation affects the stability of self-incompatibility.

Eco-evolutionary feedback to a pesticide worsens the impact of a pesticide switch in a pivotal freshwater non-target species

The paper shows that exposure to chlorpyrifos in Daphnia magna leads to rapid evolutionary changes that worsen the impact of subsequent pesticide exposure.