Evolution

A bacterial antiviral defence system generates a cyclic tri-adenylate that binds to a TIR–SAVED effector, inducing formation of a superhelical structure with adjacent TIR domains organizing into an active site, allowing NAD⁺ degradation.

The developing pelvis in birds revisits its dinosaurian state before transitioning to the characteristic avian form, providing evidence of terminal addition during evolution.

Examination of archaeological pottery residues and modern genes suggest that environmental conditions, subsistence economics and pathogen exposure may explain selection for lactase persistence better than prehistoric consumption of milk.

A new elpistostegalian from the Late Devonian period has been discovered that shows disparity in the group and represents a previously hidden ecological expansion, a secondary return to open water, near the origin of limbed vertebrates.

The functional morphology of the fluid-filled semicircular ducts of the inner ear is adapted to body temperature and behavioural activity and can be used to investigate the evolution of endothermy.

Within-host evolution is a critical regulator of commensal pathogenicity that provides a unique source of stochasticity in the development and progression of microbiota-driven disease.

The diversity hotspots hypothesis attributes the overall increase in global diversity during the Late Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras to the development of diversity hotspots under prolonged conditions of Earth system stability and maximum continental fragmentation.

A DNA memory device, DNA Typewriter, uses sequential prime editing to record the order of multiple cellular events.

DNA from ancient wolves spanning 100,000 years sheds light on wolves’ evolutionary history and the genomic origin of dogs.

A survey of 8,341 mutations in 21 yeast genes shows that synonymous mutations are nearly as harmful as nonsynonymous mutations, in part because they both affect the mRNA level of the gene mutated.

High-quality diploid assemblies of potato genomes from 24 wild and 20 cultivated potatoes provide insights into the complex evolution and diversity of potatoes, and could have applications in the breeding of hybrid potatoes.

Assembly and analysis of the Schmidtea mediterranea genome indicate that this planarian’s chromosome 1 may be evolving into a sex chromosome.

Detailed structural analysis of Palaeospondylus gunni from the Middle Devonian period shows strong resemblance to Eusthenopteron and Panderichthys, indicating that it was a sarcopterygian and most probably a stem-tetrapod.

Molecular analyses of modern and fossil skeletal samples reveal that elevated metabolic rates consistent with endothermy evolved independently in mammals and plesiosaurs, and ornithodirans: Exceptional metabolic rates are ancestral to dinosaurs and pterosaurs and were acquired before energetically costly adaptations, such as flight.

Assembly of the hexaploid oat genome and its diploid and tetraploid relatives clarifies the evolutionary history of oat and allows mapping of genes for agronomic traits.

In the tunicate Ciona intestinalis, the homeobox transcription factor Hmx drives differentiation of bipolar tail neurons, indicating conserved regulation and function, and homology with cranial sensory ganglia in higher vertebrates.

Natural variation in the mouse gene Mutyh influences the rate of C>A germline mutations.

A mathematical framework to estimate the fitness of cancer driver mutations by integrating mutational bias, oncogenicity and immunogenicity finds fundamental trade-offs in cancer evolution.

Untreated, postconsumer-PET from 51 different thermoformed products can all be almost completely degraded by FAST-PETase in 1 week and PET can be resynthesized from the recovered monomers, demonstrating recycling at the industrial scale.

Melanosomes preserved in the skin and feathers of a tapejarid pterosaur from the Early Cretaceous found in Brazil provide evidence of the early use of feathers for visual communication.

A new model simulation of climate change during the past 2 million years indicates that the appearances and disappearances of hominin species correlate with long-term climatic anomalies.

An approach that combines deep mutational scanning with neural network-based thermodynamic modelling is used to provide comprehensive maps of the energetic and allosteric effects of mutations in two common protein domains.

In extinct species including non-avian dinosaurs, bone density is shown to be a reliable indicator of aquatic behavioural adaptations, which emerged in spinosaurids during the Early Cretaceous.

Human genetic variants that impair genes that are intolerant of damaging genetic variation are associated with lower reproductive success that is probably mediated by genetically associated cognitive and behavioural traits, particularly in males.

A framework for studying and engineering gene regulatory DNA sequences, based on deep neural sequence-to-expression models trained on large-scale libraries of random DNA, provides insight into the evolution, evolvability and fitness landscapes of regulatory DNA.

A cultural assembly of traits at a 40,000-year-old archaeological site at Xiamabei, China supports a model of repeated early human expansions, cultural exchange and innovation in east Asia.

DNA analysis of 6 individuals from eastern and south-central Africa spanning the past approximately 18,000 years, and of 28 previously published ancient individuals, provides genetic evidence supporting hypotheses of increasing regionalization at the end of the Pleistocene.

Examination of fish that died on the day the Mesozoic ended reveal that the impact that caused the Cretaceous–Palaeogene mass extinction occurred during boreal spring.

ACE2 binding is an ancestral, widespread trait of sarbecovirus receptor-binding domains, and many single mutations enable binding to different ACE2 receptors.

The presence of a variety of highly derived spiral ganglion structures of the inner ear is associated with diverse echolocation strategies in yangochiropteran bats and distinguishes them from Yinpterochiroptera.

Three-dimensional reconstructions of morphology and flight mechanics of the beetle Paratuposa placentis reveal adaptations that enable extremely small insects to fly at speeds similar to those of much larger insects.

Data on de novo mutations in Arabidopsis thaliana reveal that mutations do not occur randomly; instead, epigenome-associated mutation bias reduces the occurrence of deleterious mutations.

Geochemical analyses correlating the stratum that overlies the sediments containing the Omo fossils with material from a volcanic eruption suggest that these fossils (the oldest known modern human fossils in eastern Africa) are over 200,000 years old.

The genomic profile and early transmission dynamics of the Omicron strain of SARS-CoV-2.

More than one-third of wild deer tested in northeast Ohio showed evidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection of human origin.

Bayesian analysis of datasets comprising genomes from multiple mammalian species can efficiently and precisely decipher their evolutionary timeline.

Disturbances in the radiocarbon record anchor a precisely dated archaeological stratigraphy of a medieval trading emporium in Denmark in time, revealing that the Viking expansion was associated with competition for trade routes rather than with raids.

Archaeological and ancient DNA analyses of 35 individuals entombed at Hazleton North long cairn approximately 5,700 years ago are used to reconstruct kinship practices in Early Neolithic Britain.

Genome-wide ancient DNA data from individuals from the Middle Bronze Age to Iron Age documents large-scale movement of people from the European continent between 1300 and 800 bc that was probably responsible for spreading early Celtic languages to Britain.

Intra- and inter-specific grafting is possible in most orders of monocotyledonous plants, and this process could be used to combat diseases that affect crops, such as Panama disease in bananas.

An analysis of cancer mortality data for zoo mammals highlights marked differences across mammalian orders and an influence of diet, and shows that mortality risk is largely independent of body mass and life expectancy across species.

A strong association has been found between three regions of the Plasmodium falciparum genome and sickle haemoglobin in children with severe malaria, suggesting parasites have adapted to overcome natural host immunity.

Reanalysis of bipedal trackways from Laetoli site A in Tanzania suggest that the footprints were made by a hominin that coexisted with at least one other hominin species.

Stegouros elengassen, an ankylosaur from the late Cretaceous of Chile, has a large tail weapon, named a macuahuitl after the Aztec club, with a frond-like structure formed by seven pairs of laterally projecting osteoderms encasing the distal half of the tail.

.Morphometric analysis of coccolith assemblages spanning the last 2,800,000 years suggests that the evolution of coccolithophores is linked to seasonality changes, paced by Earth’s orbital eccentricity with implications for the carbon cycle.

The heart of appendicularians has evolved by 'deconstructing' an ancestral ascidian-like gene regulatory network.