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Preprints

Filtering by Subject: Genetics

Plant genomic variation and its implications for proposed EU NGT legislation

Alan H. Schulman, Frank Hartung, Marinus J.M. Smulders, et al.

Published: 2025-04-09
Subjects: Biotechnology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Genetics, Genetics and Genomics, Genomics, Life Sciences, Molecular Genetics, Plant Breeding and Genetics Life Sciences, Plant Sciences

The European Commission proposal for New Genomic Techniques (NGTs) of July 2023 specifies that NGT1 plants, which are considered equivalent to conventional plants, may differ from the recipient or parental plant by no more than 20 insertions, which cannot be longer than 20 bp; deletions can be of any size and number. Here, we examine the proposed 20/20 NGT1 limit against the background of the [...]

The molecular evolutionary basis of species formation revisited

Megan E Frayer, Nemo V Robles, María José Rodríguez Barrera, et al.

Published: 2025-04-09
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Genetics, Genetics and Genomics, Life Sciences

How do new species arise? This is among the most fundamental questions in evolutionary biology. The first genetic model for how reproductive barriers leads to the origin of new species was proposed nearly 90 years ago. However, empirical evidence for the genetic mechanisms that cause reproductive barriers took many decades to accumulate. In 2010, Presgraves presented a comprehensive review of the [...]

Conservation macrogenetics reveals the potential hidden consequences of the 2019-2020 Black Summer fires on Australian biodiversity

Jarrod Sopniewski, Rhiannon Schembri, Craig Moritz, et al.

Published: 2025-03-17
Subjects: Biodiversity, Genetics, Genomics, Life Sciences, Molecular Genetics, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Population Biology

The use of genetic analyses has become ubiquitous in conservation planning and management as biodiversity is increasingly threatened globally. Typically, such analyses are employed at the species-level, though as genetic data accrue, it is now possible to consider the genetic composition of multiple species across landscapes. Such macrogenetic perspectives can reveal the potential genetic [...]

Winds of change: Charting a pathway to ecosystem monitoring using airborne environmental DNA

Rachel L Tulloch, Clare I.M. Adams, Matthew A Barnes, et al.

Published: 2025-03-06
Subjects: Genetics

Airborne environmental DNA (airborne eDNA) analysis leverages the globally ubiquitous medium of air to deliver broad species distribution data and support ecosystem monitoring across diverse environments. As this emerging technology matures, addressing critical challenges and seizing key opportunities will be essential to fully realise its potentially transformative impact. In June 2024, the [...]

Explanations of the obstetric dilemma: evolutionary conflict exacerbates health problems in pregnancy and childbirth

Dakota E McCoy, Jennifer Kotler, Brianna Weir, et al.

Published: 2025-03-03
Subjects: Anthropology, Biological and Physical Anthropology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Genetics, Life Sciences, Maternal and Child Health, Medicine and Health Sciences, Translational Medical Research

In their recent Nature Ecology and Evolution paper, Webb and colleagues show that chimpanzee pelvises present a tight fit for newborn infants, just like in humans. Their detailed 3D characterization shows that the degree of the squeeze is comparable between humans and chimpanzees, and that both have sexually dimorphic pelvises. The authors challenge the so-called “obstetric dilemma” – the [...]

Transferable approaches to CRISPR-Cas9 induced genome editing in non-model insects: a brief guide

Hassan Mutasim Mohammed Ahmed, Lisha Zheng, Vera Sophie Hunnekuhl

Published: 2025-02-27
Subjects: Animal Experimentation and Research, Animal Sciences, Entomology, Genetics, Life Sciences, Molecular Genetics, Other Genetics and Genomics, Zoology

Despite the large variety of insect species with divergent morphological, developmental and physiological features questions on gene function could for a long time only be addressed in few model species. The adoption of the bacterial CRISPR-Cas system for genome editing in eukaryotic cells widened the scope of the field of functional genetics: for the first time the creation of heritable genetic [...]

Simple maternal effect animal models provide biased estimates of additive genetic and maternal variation

Joel L Pick, Craig A Walling, Loeske E. B. Kruuk

Published: 2024-12-16
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Genetics, Zoology

Maternal effects (the consistent effect of a mother on her offspring) can inflate estimates of additive genetic variation (V_A) if not properly accounted for. As they are typically assumed to cause similarities only among maternal siblings, they are often accounted for by modelling maternal identity effects. However, if maternal effects have a genetic basis, they create additional similarities [...]

Evolutionary rescue by aneuploidy in tumors exposed to anti-cancer drugs

Remus Stana, Uri Ben-David, Daniel B Weissman, et al.

Published: 2024-07-31
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Genetics, Life Sciences

Evolutionary rescue happens when a population survives a sudden environmental change that initially causes the population to decline toward extinction. A prime example of evolutionary rescue is the ability of cancer to survive exposure to treatment. One evolutionary mechanism by which a population of cancer cells can adapt to chemotherapy is aneuploidy. Aneuploid cancer cells can be fitter in an [...]

Hijackers, hitchhikers, or co-drivers? The mysteries of microbial mobilizable genetic elements

Eduardo Rocha, Jorge Moura de Sousa, Manuel Ares Arroyo, et al.

Published: 2024-04-26
Subjects: Bacteriology, Evolution, Genetics, Life Sciences, Molecular Biology

Mobile genetic elements shape microbial gene repertoires and population dynamics, but their mechanisms of horizontal transmission are often unknown. Recent results reveal that many, possibly most, bacterial mobile genetic elements require helper elements to transfer between (or within) genomes. We refer to these non-autonomous, albeit mobile, elements as Hitcher Genetic Elements (hitchers or [...]

Evolution and maintenance of mtDNA gene content across eukaryotes

Shibani Veeraragavan, Maria Johansen, Iain Johnston

Published: 2024-04-22
Subjects: Evolution, Genetics, Genomics

Across eukaryotes, most genes required for mitochondrial function have been transferred to, or otherwise acquired by, the nucleus. Encoding genes in the nucleus has many advantages. So why do mitochondria retain any genes at all? Why does the set of mtDNA genes vary so much across different species? And how do species maintain functionality in the mtDNA genes they do retain? In this review we [...]

Why there are so many definitions of fitness in models

Daniel Jefferson Smith, Guilhem Doulcier, Pierrick Bourrat, et al.

Published: 2024-04-11
Subjects: Biology, Computational Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Genetics, Genetics and Genomics, Life Sciences, Population Biology

“Fitness” quantifies the ability to survive and reproduce, but is operationalized in many different ways. Generally, short-term fitness (e.g., expected number of surviving offspring) is assigned to genotypes or phenotypes, and used to non-trivially derive longer-term operationalizations of fitness (e.g. fixation probability or sojourn time), providing insight as to which organismal strategies [...]

Datathons: fostering equitability in data reuse in ecology

Stephanie Jurburg, Maria J. Alvarez Blanco, Antonis Chatzinotas, et al.

Published: 2024-04-04
Subjects: Biodiversity, Biology, Environmental Microbiology and Microbial Ecology Life Sciences, Genetics, Genetics and Genomics, Genomics, Life Sciences, Microbiology

Approaches to rapidly collect global biodiversity data are increasingly important, but biodiversity blindspots persist. We organized a three-day Datathon event to improve the openness of local biodiversity data, and facilitate data reuse by local researchers. The first Datathon, organized among microbial ecologists in Uruguay and Argentina assembled the largest microbiome dataset in the region to [...]

Covariance reaction norms: A flexible method for estimating complex environmental effects on trait (co)variances

Jordan Scott Martin

Published: 2023-11-21
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Genetics, Integrative Biology, Life Sciences, Population Biology, Research Methods in Life Sciences, Zoology

Estimating quantitative genetic and phenotypic (co)variances is crucial for investigating evolutionary ecological phenomena such as developmental integration, life history tradeoffs, and niche specialization, as well as for describing selection and predicting multivariate evolution in the wild. While most studies assume (co)variances are fixed over short timescales, environmental heterogeneity [...]

Uneven genetic data limits biodiversity assessments in protected areas globally

Ivan Paz-Vinas, Amy Vandergast, Chloe Schmidt, et al.

Published: 2023-10-26
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Policy, Genetics, Life Sciences

Increasing the extent of protected areas (PA) through 30x30 and other area-based conservation initiatives can help to achieve global biodiversity conservation goals across all biodiversity levels. However, intraspecific genetic variation, the foundational level of biodiversity, is rarely explicitly considered in PA design or quality performance assessments. Repurposing existing genetic data could [...]

Withdrawn: Datathons: fostering equitability in data reuse in ecology

Stephanie Jurburg, Maria J. Alvarez Blanco, Antonis Chatzinotas, et al.

Published: 2023-10-06
Subjects: Biodiversity, Biology, Environmental Microbiology and Microbial Ecology Life Sciences, Genetics, Genetics and Genomics, Genomics, Life Sciences, Microbiology

Duplicate of https://doi.org/10.32942/X2389Q

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