Genome evolution articles from across Nature Portfolio

A comparison of two complete sets of human centromeres reveals that the centromeres show at least a 4.1-fold increase in single-nucleotide variation compared with their unique flanks, and up to 3-fold variation in size, resulting from an accelerated mutation rate.

Rise of new viral strains is a major public health challenge, demanding advanced detection and forecasting methods. This study shows how examining communities within networks of viral mutations enables early detection of emerging strains.

We build a polyploid reference genome for hybrid sugarcane cultivar R570, improving on its current ‘mosaic monoploid’ representation, enabling fine-grain description of genome architecture and the exploration of candidate genes underlying the Bru1 brown rust resistance locus.

Four papers in Nature describe how ancient European migration patterns have shaped the modern human genome.

Beer et al. use multiple complementary approaches to show that declining densities of the Tasmanian devil have had evolutionary effects on gene flow and selection in the subordinate predator, the spotted-tail quoll.

A study in Science identifies Mavericks, a class of ancient, virus-like transposable elements, as a vector for horizontal gene transfer in nematodes.

An analysis of Y chromosomes from 29 primate species shows lineage-specific evolutionary strata as well as changes in the 3D structure, rearrangements and positive selection that have shaped the primate Y chromosome over the past 80 million years.

Sequences of almost 800 wheat genomes have retraced the history of wheat: when and where it was domesticated, how cultivation spread from its Middle Eastern centre of origin and how the genome adapted to selective pressures in new agricultural habitats, not least thanks to its ability to take up genes from wild cousins.

Kiwifruit are a dioecious species with genetic sex determination that involves genes in a male-specific region of the Y chromosome. One Y-encoded sex determining gene, Shy Girl, also controls sexually dimorphic traits. This property can explain our observation of recurrent recent changes in these genes’ location in related species.