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While a bioinformatic comparison of de novo genes and synthetic random sequence does not identify a difference in biophysical properties, in vitro expression shows higher solubility for the de novo proteins, suggesting better integration into the cellular system than random sequences.

In cyanobacteria, the interaction between an orange carotenoid protein and its allosteric regulator evolved when a horizontal gene transfer event first brought the two proteins together. However, the surface compatibility between the proteins had already emerged. This finding implies that specific protein–protein interactions can evolve without the action of direct natural selection.

For a long time, the ecological niche concept was less popular for microbes than for other organisms. A new proxy for the ecological niche breadth of a microorganism, based on the variability of the communities with which it associates, enables investigation of the correlates of being a social generalist or social specialist.

Defining the niche of a microorganism is more difficult than doing so for a macroorganism. Here the authors define a microorganism’s niche based on the communities of other microorganisms it is found with; they apply this social niche breadth metric to reveal the ecological and genomic correlates of microbial specialism versus generalism.

Integrating Australian Aboriginal art and narratives with soil excavation data suggests that the regularly spaced bare circles in Australian arid grasslands (sometimes known as ‘fairy circles’) are in fact linyji or mingkirri, termite pavement nests used by Aboriginal people for domestic and sacred purposes over generations.

Molecular phylogenetics, ancestral sequence reconstruction and biophysical protein characterization are used to investigate the interaction between the orange carotenoid protein and its unrelated regulator, the fluorescence recovery protein (FRP). This interaction evolved when a precursor of FRP was horizontally acquired by cyanobacteria.

An analysis of the eligibility rules, assessment criteria and potential gender bias in best researcher and best paper awards from broad-scope ecology and evolution journals and societies shows a lack of assessment transparency, few attempts to foster equitable access and minimal consideration of open science.

Ensemble quotient optimization (EQO) uses patterns of variation in species abundance and ecosystem functions across microbial communities to identify microbial guilds in a systematic, objective manner. EQO is robust in recovering functional groups in soil, ocean and animal-gut microbial communities.

Replacing 86 essential genes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae with orthologues from species with different diverging times, the authors show that intermolecular epistasis plays a key role in their evolution and that conserved physiological functions are maintained by co-evolution of interacting components.

An unsupervised, annotation-free method is developed that can identify microbial functional groups on the basis of variation in microbiome data and environmental variables. Here, the authors demonstrate its application in several different datasets including the Tara oceans microbiome and animal gut microbiomes.

The UN agreement to protect the biodiversity of the high seas is an important first step towards meeting the 30×30 target in the marine realm.

Consuming microplastics is known to harm marine wildlife in several ways, but effects on the microbiome are understudied. Here the authors demonstrate that two species of wild seabirds with larger amounts of microplastic in their guts had fewer commensal gut microbial species but more pathogens.

Ecosystem ecologist who made fundamental contributions to carbon cycle science and advocated for the next generation of scientists

Seminar series are a key part of academic culture. We present practices that are aimed at increasing the diversity of seminar speakers, and thus broadening associated opportunities to more members of the ecology and evolutionary biology research community.

With growing attention on the remains of people held by museums and universities around the world, we outline ethical considerations that researchers working with human remains in anthropology must bear in mind.

This Review discusses how sexual selection and sexual conflict shape genomes and transcriptomes and proposes an integrative approach combining behavioural ecology with developmental and genomic biology to answer open questions.

Unlike other North Pacific killer whales, Southern Resident killer whales have failed to thrive despite decades of conservation. Genomics combined with long-term observational records reveal inbreeding depression as a compelling explanation.

Using genome assemblies and comparative analyses, we identified evolutionary signatures of selection associated with repeated gains and losses of social behaviour in sweat bees. These signatures include changes in regulatory regions and young genes, as well as complementary patterns of positive and relaxed selection on proteins involved in juvenile hormone signalling.