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Contrary to previous studies, an analysis of 7,000 plant and animal species shows that species size is unrelated to changes in their population abundance.
Analysis of population genomic and transcriptomic data of flies and humans shows that species-specific mutation biases and common selective forces have collectively shaped the early evolutionary phase of duplicated DNA segments that overlap with coding genes.
Despite expectations that global anthropogenic pressures on species with communities may be size biased, this relationship has not been tested on a large scale. Here the authors use existing databases to show that larger species have not experienced more declines in abundance within their respective communities than small species.
Analysing the global distribution, source and authorship of fossil research over the past 30 years, the authors find that researchers in high- or upper-middle-income countries hold a monopoly over palaeontological knowledge production, contributing to 97% of fossil data in the Paleobiology Database, leading to disenfranchisement of researchers in lower-income countries and biased spatial sampling across the globe.
Polymorphic duplicate genes are important early stages of duplicate gene evolution. Here, the authors characterize polymorphic gene duplicates with respect to dosage, exon–intron structures and allele frequencies for Drosophila and humans.
Spatiotemporal modelling of tumours detects at least two distinct models of cancer evolution and reveals the influence of necrosis in enhancing the metastatic potential in both models.
Combined mutation rate estimation and reverse ecology sheds light on the forces shaping population size of Prochlorococcus, a major bacterial carbon sink.
A global synthesis of plant traits finds that climate and soil variables explain two key axes of trait variation, offering a new framework to understand how the environment shapes plant form and function.
A model of pathogen evolution that allows for non-equilibrium dynamics finds that antigenic drift and escape select for the long-term persistence of more acute pathogens with higher virulence.
Tumour evolution modelling indicates that different tumour spatial structures can determine different tumour evolutionary modes, which are regulated by cell dispersal and cell–cell interactions. Model predictions of four evolutionary modes are consistent with empirical observations of cancers with varying architectures.
The authors investigate the broad-scale climatological and soil properties that co-vary with major axes of plant functional traits. They find that variation in plant size is attributed to latitudinal gradients in water or energy limitation, while variation in leaf economics traits is attributed to both climate and soil fertility including their interaction.
A combined modelling and tumour analysis approach is used to study the temporal and spatial patterns of subclone evolution in the TRACERx renal study. Studying the tumour shape and spatial features of clonal diversity in early-stage tumours may allow the prediction of tumour progression and patterns of subclone diversification over time.
The hunchback spider exhibits male-specific polymorphism in head shape. Here, the authors show that this polymorphism is determined by a large insertion that comprises duplicated male-specific genes including a duplicate of a key sexual differentiation regulatory gene.
Vertical transmission is thought to favour beneficial host–microbe interactions, but these may also be context dependent. Here Bruijning et al. show with a model that variable environments can select for bet-hedging by hosts via imperfect vertical transmission of microbes.
Based on an empirically estimated mutation rate, the authors show that the effective population size of Prochlorococcus, the most abundant carbon-fixing organisms in the ocean, is smaller than that of many free-living bacteria, suggesting an important role of drift in Prochlorococcus evolution.
Approaches to financing biodiversity conservation tend to focus on funding gaps, but fail to address underlying political and economic drivers. We propose two strategies — tax reform and debt justice — to supercharge public financing for biodiversity and deflate harmful financial flows, while chipping away at the causes of state austerity.
