Browsing Faculty of Arts and Sciences by Keyword "evolutionary biology"
Now showing items 1-20 of 33
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9-Genes Reinforce the Phylogeny of Holometabola and Yield Alternate Views on the Phylogenetic Placement of Strepsiptera
(Public Library of Science, 2010)Background: The extraordinary morphology, reproductive and developmental biology, and behavioral ecology of twisted wing parasites (order Strepsiptera) have puzzled biologists for centuries. Even today, the phylogenetic ... -
Adaptive Variation in Beach Mice Produced by Two Interacting Pigmentation Genes
(Public Library of Science, 2007)Little is known about the genetic basis of ecologically important morphological variation such as the diverse color patterns of mammals. Here we identify genetic changes contributing to an adaptive difference in color ... -
A Careful Look at Binding Site Reorganization in the even-skipped Enhancers of Drosophila and Sepsids
(Public Library of Science, 2008) -
Chromodynamics of Cooperation in Finite Populations
(Public Library of Science, 2007)Background: The basic idea of tag-based models for cooperation is that individuals recognize each other via arbitrary signals, so-called tags. If there are tags of different colors, then cooperators can always establish ... -
Effects of the Distribution of Female Primates on the Number of Males
(Public Library of Science, 2011)The spatiotemporal distribution of females is thought to drive variation in mating systems, and hence plays a central role in understanding animal behavior, ecology and evolution. Previous research has focused on investigating ... -
Evolution under Fluctuating Environments Explains Observed Robustness in Metabolic Networks
(Public Library of Science, 2010)A high level of robustness against gene deletion is observed in many organisms. However, it is still not clear which biochemical features underline this robustness and how these are acquired during evolution. One hypothesis, ... -
Evolutionary Entropy Determines Invasion Success in Emergent Epidemics
(Public Library of Science, 2010)Background: Standard epidemiological theory claims that in structured populations competition between multiple pathogen strains is a deterministic process which is mediated by the basic reproduction number (R0) of the ... -
Evolving Righteousness in a Corrupt World
(Public Library of Science, 2012)Punishment offers a powerful mechanism for the maintenance of cooperation in human and animal societies, but the maintenance of costly punishment itself remains problematic. Game theory has shown that corruption, where ... -
Experimental interrogation of the path dependence and stochasticity of protein evolution using phage-assisted continuous evolution
(Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2013)To what extent are evolutionary outcomes determined by a population's recent environment, and to what extent do they depend on historical contingency and random chance? Here we apply a unique experimental system to investigate ... -
Expression and Putative Function of Innate Immunity Genes under In Situ Conditions in the Symbiotic Hydrothermal Vent Tubeworm Ridgeia piscesae
(Public Library of Science, 2012)The relationships between hydrothermal vent tubeworms and sulfide-oxidizing bacteria have served as model associations for understanding chemoautotrophy and endosymbiosis. Numerous studies have focused on the physiological ... -
Favorable Climate Change Response Explains Non-Native Species' Success in Thoreau's Woods
(Public Library of Science, 2010)Invasive species have tremendous detrimental ecological and economic impacts. Climate change may exacerbate species invasions across communities if non-native species are better able to respond to climate changes than ... -
Fetal Programming and Fetal Psychology
(John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., 2010)The introduction of the ‘fetal programming hypothesis’, first in epidemiology, subsequently in a broad range of disciplines concerned with developmental biology, has generated new interest in phenotypic plasticity, the ... -
General Intelligence in Another Primate: Individual Differences across Cognitive Task Performance in a New World Monkey (Saguinus Oedipus)
(Public Library of Science, 2009)Background: Individual differences in human cognitive abilities show consistently positive correlations across diverse domains, providing the basis for the trait of “general intelligence” (g). At present, little is known ... -
The Genetic Signature of Sex-Biased Migration in Patrilocal Chimpanzees and Humans
(Public Library of Science, 2007)A large body of theoretical work suggests that analyses of variation at the maternally inherited mitochondrial (mt)DNA and the paternally inherited non-recombining portion of the Y chromosome (NRY) are a potentially powerful ... -
Genome Organization and Gene Expression Shape the Transposable Element Distribution in the Drosophila Melanogaster Euchromatin
(Public Library of Science, 2007)The distribution of transposable elements (TEs) in a genome reflects a balance between insertion rate and selection against new insertions. Understanding the distribution of TEs therefore provides insights into the forces ... -
Genomic Hotspots for Adaptation: The Population Genetics of Müllerian Mimicry in the Heliconius melpomene Clade
(Public Library of Science, 2010)Wing patterning in Heliconius butterflies is a longstanding example of both Müllerian mimicry and phenotypic radiation under strong natural selection. The loci controlling such patterns are “hotspots” for adaptive evolution ... -
The Irreversible Loss of a Decomposition Pathway Marks the Single Origin of an Ectomycorrhizal Symbiosis
(Public Library of Science, 2012)Microbial symbioses have evolved repeatedly across the tree of life, but the genetic changes underlying transitions to symbiosis are largely unknown, especially for eukaryotic microbial symbionts. We used the genus Amanita, ... -
Local-Scale Patterns of Genetic Variability, Outcrossing, and Spatial Structure in Natural Stands of Arabidopsis thaliana
(Public Library of Science, 2010)As Arabidopsis thaliana is increasingly employed in evolutionary and ecological studies, it is essential to understand patterns of natural genetic variation and the forces that shape them. Previous work focusing mostly on ... -
Melanism in Peromyscus Is Caused by Independent Mutations in Agouti
(Public Library of Science, 2009)Identifying the molecular basis of phenotypes that have evolved independently can provide insight into the ways genetic and developmental constraints influence the maintenance of phenotypic diversity. Melanic (darkly ... -
Optimal Drug Synergy in Antimicrobial Treatments
(Public Library of Science, 2010)The rapid proliferation of antibiotic-resistant pathogens has spurred the use of drug combinations to maintain clinical efficacy and combat the evolution of resistance. Drug pairs can interact synergistically or antagonistically, ...