The August cover of Molecular Biology and Evolution features the work of Xue et al., who describe the genetic architecture and supergene control of tristyly, in Eichhornia paniculata.

doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf170

Diane K. Johnson and Elizabeth Campolin

Nazarizadeh et al. investigate whether distinct fish host species impose different selective pressures on populations of the tapeworm parasite Ligula intestinalis; results support selection underlying ecological speciation.

doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf163

Using 484 genomes from Chinese and Western pig breeds across various altitudes, Lai et al. identify genomic targets of selection in Tibetan pigs, pinpointing the regulatory basis of high-altitude adaptation in Tibetan pigs.

doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf169

Riffis, Saclier & Galtier analyzed coding sequences in murine rodents, finding that GC-biased gene conversion episodes caused deleterious AT→GC substitutions, followed by rapid compensatory evolution.

doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf168

West et al. apply convolutional neural network models to detect selection across a specific range of phylogenetic scenarios and evolutionary modes, showing it is an accurate and scalable method for large-scale, multigene analyses.

doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf154

Pospelova et al. present a comparative analysis of full-length sequences of IG/TR loci across 46 mammalian species, demonstrating these as rapidly evolving genomic regions, with implications for immunogenomics.

doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf152

The evolution of bird viruses remains obscure - He et al. perform phylogenomic mining of endogenous retroviruses in 758 bird genomes, revealing a highly diverse and complex retrovirus repertoire in birds, and observing recent ERV activity in bird evolution.

doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf171

Gong et al. employ structural, phylogenetic, and synteny analyses in sea lamprey to study the early evolution of class-I cytokine receptors and reveal diverse functions of the leptin signaling system in jawless vertebrate

doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf157

To investigate the human genetic history of São Tomé island, Ciccarella et al. genotyped genome-wide SNP in 96 individuals, identifying five genetic clusters, retracing slave trade and labor-driven migrations, and identifying nested admixture.

doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf156

Yang et al. compare four freshwater-resident populations of fish Neosalanx brevirostris with their common ancestral anadromous population, showing that rapid parallel adaptation to freshwater followed a complex but parallel polygenic architecture.

doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf160

Sun et al. analyzed 50 cell cycle genes to study trade-offs between body size and cancer resistance in cetaceans, providing molecular support for Peto's paradox (no correlation between body size, lifespan, and cancer risk across species).

doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf159

Chen et al investigate deleterious mutations and purifying selection in 17 stickleback populations, finding that inbreeding predicts realized loads of deleterious mutations, and genomic consequences of isolation in small populations are predictable.

doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf110

Long et al. integrate population genomics, experimental evolution, and environmental modeling to elucidate the evolutionary responses to climate change in Populus lasiocarpa.

This study has made the July cover of MBE.

doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf116

Xing et al. study sex chromosome evolution in two species of halfbeak fish, identifying a large sex-linked ZW region in Hyporhamphus sajori and a small sex-linked region on a different chromosome, with male heterogamety, in H. intermedius.

doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf151

The recent article by Walunjkar et al. on the evolution of protein thermostability is the focus of this month's Highlight feature.

Highlight: Cellular Environment and Protein Structure Help Organisms Cope with Temperature Stress

doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf155

Kuru & Adebali present PHACE,a phylogeny-aware coevolution algorithm that maps amino acid substitutions onto a phylogenetic tree to detect molecular coevolution.

doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf150

Walunjkar et al. profiled the proteomes of two yeast species with differences in thermotolerance - finding a proteome-wide shift in stability, driven by both sequence change and cellular context.

doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf137

Taboada ‪‪et al. used population genomics, transcriptomics, and microbiome data to show that the deep-sea sponge Geodia hentscheli exhibits strong depth-related genetic structure and local adaptation.

doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf145

Grieshop et al. experimentally broke intersexual genetic constraints in Drosophila: male-limited chromosome inheritance increased male fitness and masculinized splicing.

doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf099

‪@rpianezza.bsky.social‬ ‪@almoroscarpa.bsky.social‬, A. Haidar, @signor-molevol.bsky.social‬ ‪@rokofler.bsky.social‬ investigated 11 TEs in D. melanogaster that added ~1 Mbp via horizontal transfer, likely from other Drosophila spp.

doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf143