Coevolution articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Selection is expected to act differently on aposematic and cryptic species. Analysis of wing images revealed that camouflaged moths exhibit higher wing pattern variability than aposematic moths, supporting the theory that camouflaged species display more variability, consistent with anti-predator strategy.

    • Ossi Nokelainen
    • , Sanni A. Silvasti
    •  & Johanna Mappes

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Niche theory is often invoked to explain biodiversity, but it does not explain how species evolve to exploit unique niches. Using a combination of experimental and computational approaches, this study shows that resource competition can deform fitness landscapes, opening new pathways that promote ecological speciation.

    • Michael B. Doud
    • , Animesh Gupta
    •  & Justin R. Meyer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Varroa and Tropilaelaps mites threaten honeybee health. This study finds that mites alter feeding habits depends on their own, and hosts’, life history stage. Mites feed on the host hemolymph when parasitizing pupae during their reproductive stage but consume fat body during their dispersal stage.

    • Bin Han
    • , Jiangli Wu
    •  & Shufa Xu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Interactions with angiosperms are thought to have had a significant impact on insect diversification. Here, the authors use a Bayesian process-based approach to find that angiosperm radiation played a dual role that changed through time, mitigating insect extinction in the Cretaceous and promoting insect origination in the Cenozoic.

    • David Peris
    •  & Fabien L. Condamine

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Little is known about how malaria parasites adapt the speed of their development to their mosquito vectors. Using an evolutionary modelling framework, this study predicts that the metabolic status of mosquitoes shapes the parasites’ life-history strategies and transmission dynamics.

    • Paola Carrillo-Bustamante
    • , Giulia Costa
    •  & Elena A. Levashina

  • Article
    | Open Access

    To control transposable elements, fruit flies rely on distinct genomic regions called piRNA clusters. Here, new piRNA clusters were identified across diverse Drosophila species, displaying a conserved and specialised role in the control of endogenous retroviruses in ovarian somatic cells.

    • Jasper van Lopik
    • , Azad Alizada
    •  & Benjamin Czech Nicholson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Most globular proteins are selected to fold into one unique structure. Schafer and Porter demonstrate that some proteins are selected to assume two stable folds; they leverage this information to predict two structures from one sequence.

    • Joseph W. Schafer
    •  & Lauren L. Porter

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Annelid worms have colonised extreme ecological niches, such as hydrothermal vents and whale falls thanks to symbiotic bacteria. This study finds that Osedax worms and the related Vestimentifera have evolved different genomic adaptations to sustain their bacterial symbioses and exploit different resources, such as decaying bone.

    • Giacomo Moggioli
    • , Balig Panossian
    •  & José M. Martín-Durán

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Bacteria and their viruses coexist and coevolve in nature, but maintaining them together in the lab is challenging. Here, a spatially structured environment allowed prolonged coevolution, with bacteria and phage diversifying into multiple ecotypes, uncovering gene mechanisms affecting phage-bacteria interactions.

    • Einat Shaer Tamar
    •  & Roy Kishony

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In this study, the microbiota of multiple body sites from 101 marine fish species from Southern California were sampled and analysed. The authors compared diversity measures while also establishing a method to estimate microbial biomass. Body site is shown to be the strongest driver of microbial diversity and patterns of phylosymbiosis are observed across the gill, skin and hindgut.

    • Jeremiah J. Minich
    • , Andreas Härer
    •  & Eric E. Allen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The ecological and evolutionary impacts of disease vary in spatially structured populations. Here, the authors study ~4000 populations of Plantago lanceolata and find that resistance evolution depends on both disease history and population structure, with isolated populations more susceptible to fungal disease.

    • Layla Höckerstedt
    • , Elina Numminen
    •  & Anna-Liisa Laine

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Women generally mount a stronger immune response to infections than men do, resulting in a higher impact of autoimmune diseases. Here, the authors show that pathogen transmission from mother-to-child during pregnancy drives the co-evolution of a stout defence against harmless pathogens in women.

    • Evan Mitchell
    • , Andrea L. Graham
    •  & Geoff Wild

  • Article
    | Open Access

    How Earth’s atmosphere became oxygenated remains enigmatic. Here the authors use mathematical and phylogenetic analyses to find that Earth’s oxygenation is induced by the interactions of microbial oxidative metabolites with sediment minerals.

    • Haitao Shang
    • , Daniel H. Rothman
    •  & Gregory P. Fournier

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cooperative mutualisms are widespread in many ecosystems but how they affect the ability of organisms to adapt to changing conditions was unclear. This study experimentally demonstrates that members of obligate cooperative mutualisms are less able to adapt evolutionarily to external selection pressures and are more likely to return to metabolic autonomy than their free-living counterparts.

    • Benedikt Pauli
    • , Leonardo Oña
    •  & Christian Kost

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Insect acquisition of insecticide resistance represents a serious problem for agriculture. Here, authors reveal an insect symbiotic bacteria that degrades insecticide fenitrothion into a non-insecticidal but bactericidal compound, which is subsequently excreted by the insect host.

    • Yuya Sato
    • , Seonghan Jang
    •  & Yoshitomo Kikuchi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here the authors sequence 16S rRNA and the more variable gyrase B protein-coding gene to profile the gut microbiome of captive great apes, which together with analysis of wild apes and humans, reveal a displacement of bacterial strains normally restricted to their wild conspecifics with those that are otherwise restricted to humans.

    • Alex H. Nishida
    •  & Howard Ochman

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Many species learn through social transmission, which can alter co-evolutionary selection pressures. Experiments involving artificial prey and social networks show that wild birds can learn about unpalatable food by watching others, which helps explain the persistence of costly prey defences despite influxes of naïve juvenile predators.

    • Liisa Hämäläinen
    • , William Hoppitt
    •  & Rose Thorogood

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The parasite causing toxoplasmosis can manipulate prey to behave in ways that promote transmission to the parasite’s definitive feline hosts. The first study consistent with this extended phenotype in the wild finds that infected hyena cubs approach lions more closely than uninfected peers and have higher rates of lion mortality.

    • Eben Gering
    • , Zachary M. Laubach
    •  & Thomas Getty

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Many obligate symbionts, including parasites, have reduced genomes. A comparison of leaf-cutter ant genomes reveals parallel gene losses, particularly in olfactory receptors, in socially parasitic species compared to their closely-related hosts, consistent with relaxed selection for cooperative colony life in the parasites.

    • Lukas Schrader
    • , Hailin Pan
    •  & Christian Rabeling

  • Article
    | Open Access

    While there is strong evidence that many mutualisms evolved from antagonism, how or why remains unclear. A study combining theory and a data-based model sheds light on how mutualisms evolve without extremely tight host fidelity and how ecological context affects evolutionary outcomes and vice-versa.

    • Christopher A. Johnson
    • , Gordon P. Smith
    •  & Régis Ferrière

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The herbivorous horseradish flea beetle sequesters plant toxins to defend against predators. Here the authors identify glucosinolate transporters expressed in the beetle Malpighian tubules and provide evidence that these reabsorb glucosinolates from the tubule lumen to prevent their loss by excretion.

    • Zhi-Ling Yang
    • , Hussam Hassan Nour-Eldin
    •  & Franziska Beran

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Parasitoids exploit host bodies for reproduction, selecting for host defences. A new host defence is reported, in which adult Drosophila accelerate mating behaviour at the sight of certain parasitoid wasps, mediated by the upregulation of a nervous system gene that encodes a 41-amino acid micropeptide.

    • Shimaa A. M. Ebrahim
    • , Gaëlle J. S. Talross
    •  & John R. Carlson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Nearly 17% of all bird species are hosts to obligate brood parasites like the common cuckoo. Antonson et al. show that parasite species hedge their reproductive bets by outsourcing parental care to a greater variety of host species when the rearing environment for their young is more unpredictable.

    • Nicholas D. Antonson
    • , Dustin R. Rubenstein
    •  & Carlos A. Botero

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cooperative relationships are widespread among different classes of biopolymers and are predicted to have existed during emergence of life. This study shows that proto-peptides engage in mutually stabilizing interactions with RNA, providing support for the co-evolution of these molecules.

    • Moran Frenkel-Pinter
    • , Jay W. Haynes
    •  & Luke J. Leman

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Both geography and ecology can drive the origins of new species. Siqueira et al. show how geological changes in the structure of Miocene reefs and the concurrent evolution of new feeding strategies combine to explain why coral reefs contain such a diversity of fish species.

    • Alexandre C. Siqueira
    • , Renato A. Morais
    •  & Peter F. Cowman

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Complex macroscopic organisms are first found in the Ediacaran period, but their ecology during this time is not well understood. Here, Bobrovskiy et al. analyse biomarkers from Ediacaran sediments hosting macrofossils and find evidence for abundant algal food sources available for these organisms.

    • Ilya Bobrovskiy
    • , Janet M. Hope
    •  & Jochen J. Brocks

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Bilaterian mitochondria-encoded tRNA genes accumulate mutations at higher rates than their cytoplasmic tRNA counterparts, resulting in idiosyncratic structures. Here the authors suggest an evolutionary basis for the observed mutational freedom of mitochondrial (mt) tRNAs and reveal the associated co-adaptive structural and functional changes in mt aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases.

    • Bernhard Kuhle
    • , Joseph Chihade
    •  & Paul Schimmel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The relationship between the coral animal and symbiotic algae is essential to coral health, and researchers are turning to Exaiptasia, a model cnidarian system, to study this relationship mechanistically. Here the authors find that endosymbiotic algae become limited by nitrogen at high population densities and provide the host with high levels of fixed carbon.

    • Tingting Xiang
    • , Erik Lehnert
    •  & Arthur R. Grossman

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Models of mate choice have mainly focused on the implications of female mate choice for reproductive isolation. Here, Aubier et al. develop a population genetic model of coevolution between female and male mate choice, which can lead the population to oscillate between assortative and random mating.

    • Thomas G. Aubier
    • , Hanna Kokko
    •  & Mathieu Joron

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Predator-prey coevolution is expected to hasten evolutionary rates, but this is difficult to test in long-lived species. Here, the authors report consequences of experimental coevolution between bacterial predators and prey, including accelerated molecular evolution and parallel genomic and phenotypic adaptation.

    • Ramith R. Nair
    • , Marie Vasse
    •  & Gregory J. Velicer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Staphylococcus aureus pathogenicity islands (SaPIs) encode the master repressor Stl and after bacteriophage infection Stl interacts with specific phage proteins leading to a derepression of SaPIs. Here the authors provide structural insights into this family of repressors by determining the crystal structures of SaPIbov1 Stl alone and in complex with two structurally unrelated phage dUTPases.

    • J. Rafael Ciges-Tomas
    • , Christian Alite
    •  & Alberto Marina

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Sensory drive theory predicts that vocal signalling coevolves with auditory sensitivity, but empirical evidence is limited. Here, Charlton et al. show that vocal characteristics and hearing have coevolved in forest mammals, due to constraints imposed by the local signalling environment.

    • Benjamin D. Charlton
    • , Megan A. Owen
    •  & Ronald R. Swaisgood

  • Review Article
    | Open Access

    The reciprocal interaction between genetic and cultural evolution is well recognised in humans. Here, Whitehead and colleagues review the growing body of evidence that culture is also a major driver of both neutral and adaptive genetic evolution in non-human animals.

    • Hal Whitehead
    • , Kevin N. Laland
    •  & Andrew Whiten

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Host phylogeny and diet are major explanatory factors of animal gut microbiome diversity, but our understanding of these associations is limited by a focus on captive animals and a narrow taxonomic scope. Here, the authors isolate evolutionary and ecological drivers of gut microbiomes from wild mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish.

    • Nicholas D. Youngblut
    • , Georg H. Reischer
    •  & Andreas H. Farnleitner

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Plants and fungi interact widely and in diverse ways, from mutualism to parasitism and decomposition. Here, Lutzoni et al. analyse the timing of plant and fungal evolutionary radiations and identify four major periods in which plant-fungal interactions likely drove lineage diversification.

    • François Lutzoni
    • , Michael D. Nowak
    •  & Susana Magallón

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Herbivorous insects could diversify through radiations after major host switches or through constant variability in new host use. With phylogenetic and network analyses, Braga et al. show that variability in host use supports most butterfly diversification, while rare radiations can further boost diversity.

    • Mariana P. Braga
    • , Paulo R. Guimarães Jr
    •  & Niklas Janz

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Associations between corals and symbiotic microorganisms could be driven by the environment or shared evolutionary history. Here, the authors examine relationships between coral phylogenies and associated microbiomes, finding evidence of phylosymbiosis in microbes from coral skeleton and tissue, but not mucus.

    • F. Joseph Pollock
    • , Ryan McMinds
    •  & Jesse R. Zaneveld

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The evolution of cooperation depends on social structure, which may evolve in response. Here, Akçay models coevolution between cooperation and social network formation strategies, showing that coevolutionary feedbacks lead cooperation to collapse unless constrained by costs of social connections.

    • Erol Akçay

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