Evolutionary genetics articles within Nature

Featured

  • Outlook |

    Several human genes involved in digestion have diverged along cultural lines. Research suggests these adaptations influence the range of foods tolerated and even certain diseases.

    • Michael Eisenstein

  • Letter |

    To shed light on the natural history of Precambrian life, the evolutionary history of almost 4,000 gene families across the three domains of life are mapped onto a geological timeline. Over one-quarter of modern gene families arose during a period of rapid diversification of bacterial lineages. Functionally, these genes are likely to be involved in electron transport and respiratory pathways, whereas those that arose later are implicated in functions consistent with an increasingly oxygenating biosphere.

    • Lawrence A. David
    •  & Eric J. Alm

  • News & Views |

    Comparative genomics studies reveal molecular signatures of the controversial 'phylotypic' stage — a time when embryos of members of an animal phylum all look more alike than at other embryonic stages. See Letters p.811 & p.815

    • Benjamin Prud'homme
    •  & Nicolas Gompel

  • Letter |

    For two hundred years, scientists have noticed that the appearance of embryos in related species converge in their appearance mid-way in development, diverging thereafter. But is this 'phylotypic stage' real, and how is it connected with the genetic basis of development? Here, a method linking the genes transcribed at various stages of development (the transcriptome) with the evolutionary history of those genes is used. Genes transcribed in the phylotypic stage are, in evolutionary terms, the oldest and most conserved. This suggests that the phylotypic stage does represent the body plans of related species at their most unadorned, selection having sculpted the earlier and later stages of embryonic form to suit the particulars of each creature.

    • Alex T. Kalinka
    • , Karolina M. Varga
    •  & Pavel Tomancak

  • Letter |

    When genes are transcribed into RNA, the polymerase extends beyond the end of the protein-coding portion to make the 3′ untranslated region (UTR); this region contains important regulatory sequences, such as microRNA binding sites, and facilitates translation. Long tracts of untemplated adenines are added to the 3′ UTR, and the standard method for sequencing the transcriptome is based on hybridization to the poly(A) tail. A new high-throughput approach to transcriptome sequencing is reported that avoids a known limitation of the poly(A) method; the method is used to provide a more accurate analysis of functional and evolutionary aspects of 3′ UTRs of the nematode.

    • Calvin H. Jan
    • , Robin C. Friedman
    •  & David P. Bartel

  • News & Views |

    One might think that aneuploidy — having an abnormal number of chromosomes — would be harmful, and would reduce an organism's fitness. Not necessarily: it all depends on the type of aneuploidy and the associated conditions. See Letter p.321

    • Judith Berman

  • News & Views |

    Speciation can occur even when the incipient species coexist and can interbreed. An extensive analysis of two fruitfly strains suggests that many genomic regions contribute to speciation in such cases.

    • Erin S. Kelleher
    •  & Daniel A. Barbash

  • News |

    Four-legged creatures may have gained a foothold by ditching genes guiding fin development.

    • Janelle Weaver

  • Letter |

    The organization of Hox clusters in several different reptiles is investigated, showing that the Hox clusters in squamates — lizards and snakes — have unexpectedly accumulated transposable elements, reflecting extensive genomic rearrangements of coding and non coding regulatory regions. Comparative expression analyses between two species showing different axial skeletons, the corn snake and the whiptail lizard, revealed major alterations in Hox13 and Hox10 expression features during snake somitogenesis, in line with the expansion of both caudal and thoracic regions.

    • Nicolas Di-Poï
    • , Juan I. Montoya-Burgos
    •  & Denis Duboule

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The first genome sequence of an ancient human is reported. It comes from an approximately 4,000-year-old permafrost-preserved hair from a male from the first known culture to settle in Greenland. Functional single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) assessment is used to assign possible phenotypic characteristics and high-confidence SNPs are compared to those of contemporary populations to find those most closely related to the individual.

    • Morten Rasmussen
    • , Yingrui Li
    •  & Eske Willerslev

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