ALBERT

Description: Mammals diversified by colonizing drastically different environments, with each transition yielding numerous molecular changes, including losses of protein function. Though not initially deleterious, these losses could subsequently carry deleterious pleiotropic consequences. We have used phylogenetic methods to identify convergent functional losses across independent marine mammal lineages. In one extreme case, Paraoxonase 1 ( PON1 ) accrued lesions in all marine lineages, while remaining intact in all terrestrial mammals. These lesions coincide with PON1 enzymatic activity loss in marine species’ blood plasma. This convergent loss is likely explained by parallel shifts in marine ancestors’ lipid metabolism and/or bloodstream oxidative environment affecting PON1’s role in fatty acid oxidation. PON1 loss also eliminates marine mammals’ main defense against neurotoxicity from specific man-made organophosphorus compounds, implying potential risks in modern environments.

Description: The turbulent surfaces of rivers and streams are natural hotspots of biogeochemical exchange with the atmosphere. At the global scale, the total river-atmosphere flux of trace gasses such as carbon dioxide depends on the proportion of Earth’s surface that is covered by the fluvial network, yet the total surface area of rivers and streams is poorly constrained. We used a global database of planform river hydromorphology and a statistical approach to show that global river and stream surface area at mean annual discharge is 773,000 ± 79,000 square kilometers (0.58 ± 0.06%) of Earth’s nonglaciated land surface, an area 44 ± 15% larger than previous spatial estimates. We found that rivers and streams likely play a greater role in controlling land-atmosphere fluxes than is currently represented in global carbon budgets.

Description: The color patterns of African cichlid fishes provide notable examples of phenotypic convergence. Across the more than 1200 East African rift lake species, melanic horizontal stripes have evolved numerous times. We discovered that regulatory changes of the gene agouti-related peptide 2 ( agrp2 ) act as molecular switches controlling this evolutionarily labile phenotype. Reduced agrp2 expression is convergently associated with the presence of stripe patterns across species flocks. However, cis-regulatory mutations are not predictive of stripes across radiations, suggesting independent regulatory mechanisms. Genetic mapping confirms the link between the agrp2 locus and stripe patterns. The crucial role of agrp2 is further supported by a CRISPR-Cas9 knockout that reconstitutes stripes in a nonstriped cichlid. Thus, we unveil how a single gene affects the convergent evolution of a complex color pattern.

Description: Snowshoe hares ( Lepus americanus ) maintain seasonal camouflage by molting to a white winter coat, but some hares remain brown during the winter in regions with low snow cover. We show that cis-regulatory variation controlling seasonal expression of the Agouti gene underlies this adaptive winter camouflage polymorphism. Genetic variation at Agouti clustered by winter coat color across multiple hare and jackrabbit species, revealing a history of recurrent interspecific gene flow. Brown winter coats in snowshoe hares likely originated from an introgressed black-tailed jackrabbit allele that has swept to high frequency in mild winter environments. These discoveries show that introgression of genetic variants that underlie key ecological traits can seed past and ongoing adaptation to rapidly changing environments.

Description: Maintenance of biodiversity in a rapidly changing climate will depend on the efficacy of evolutionary rescue, whereby population declines due to abrupt environmental change are reversed by shifts in genetically driven adaptive traits. However, a lack of traits known to be under direct selection by anthropogenic climate change has limited the incorporation of evolutionary processes into global conservation efforts. In 21 vertebrate species, some individuals undergo a seasonal color molt from summer brown to winter white as camouflage against snow, whereas other individuals remain brown. Seasonal snow duration is decreasing globally, and fitness is lower for winter white animals on snowless backgrounds. Based on 2713 georeferenced samples of known winter coat color—from eight species across trophic levels—we identify environmentally driven clinal gradients in winter coat color, including polymorphic zones where winter brown and white morphs co-occur. These polymorphic zones, underrepresented by existing global protected area networks, indicate hot spots for evolutionary rescue in a changing climate.

Description: Anyone awed by towering redwoods should offer thanks to stomata, the tiny pores on the leaves of all trees and other vascular plants. These microscopic mouths allow plants to grow tall and to regulate carbon dioxide intake and water loss. Stomata, in short, helped plants colonize the landscape and transform the planet. Now, molecular studies are giving scientists glimpses of the early days of stomata and how they have changed since then. They suggest complex stomata evolved to help early plants control moisture in their spore capsules and that other plants later exploited these pores to breathe in carbon dioxide and exhale water vapor. And hundreds of millions of years later, more sophisticated stomata evolved in grasses, enabling them to tightly control water loss—a feature that helped them dominate dry landscapes around the world. Author: Elizabeth Pennisi

Description: Author: Julia Fahrenkamp-Uppenbrink

Description: Avian egg shape is generally explained as an adaptation to life history, yet we currently lack a global synthesis of how egg-shape differences arise and evolve. Here, we apply morphometric, mechanistic, and macroevolutionary analyses to the egg shapes of 1400 bird species. We characterize egg-shape diversity in terms of two biologically relevant variables, asymmetry and ellipticity, allowing us to quantify the observed morphologies in a two-dimensional morphospace. We then propose a simple mechanical model that explains the observed egg-shape diversity based on geometric and material properties of the egg membrane. Finally, using phylogenetic models, we show that egg shape correlates with flight ability on broad taxonomic scales, suggesting that adaptations for flight may have been critical drivers of egg-shape variation in birds.

Description: Extreme environmental perturbations offer opportunities to observe the effects of natural selection in wild populations. During the winter of 2013–2014, the southeastern United States endured an extreme cold event. We used thermal performance, transcriptomics, and genome scans to measure responses of lizard populations to storm-induced selection. We found significant increases in cold tolerance at the species’ southern limit. Gene expression in southern survivors shifted toward patterns characteristic of northern populations. Comparing samples before and after the extreme winter, 14 genomic regions were differentiated in the surviving southern population; four also exhibited signatures of local adaptation across the latitudinal gradient and implicate genes involved in nervous system function. Together, our results suggest that extreme winter events can rapidly produce strong selection on natural populations at multiple biological levels that recapitulate geographic patterns of local adaptation.

Description: Author: Sacha Vignieri

Description: The phrase “perception is reality” is used in many contexts but is often not true. For example, human inability to perceive ultraviolet light does not negate its reality. Nevertheless, perception can cause reality to evolve. This is the insight of the study by Nachev et al. on page 75 of this issue (1). The authors integrated field and laboratory experiments with computer simulations to explain how perceptual mechanisms in a pollinator—a bat—can cause the evolution of counterintuitive traits in flowers. Author: Hamilton Farris

Description: Charles Darwin closed his first edition of On the Origin of Species with the poetic words: “There is grandeur in this view of life,…whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved” (1). Today, scientists are using genetics to understand how species multiply, and ecological and behavioral knowledge to understand why they do so. However, many questions remain about the sources of genetic variation and how new phenotypes arise in response to environmental change. Recent research has revealed unexpected origins of genetic variation, providing crucial insights into phenotypic divergence and the evolutionary effects of rare events triggered by global climatic change. Authors: B. Rosemary Grant, Peter R. Grant

Description: Author: Julia Fahrenkamp-Uppenbrink

Description: We used extensive data from a long-term study of great tits ( Parus major ) in the United Kingdom and Netherlands to better understand how genetic signatures of selection translate into variation in fitness and phenotypes. We found that genomic regions under differential selection contained candidate genes for bill morphology and used genetic architecture analyses to confirm that these genes, especially the collagen gene COL4A5 , explained variation in bill length. COL4A5 variation was associated with reproductive success, which, combined with spatiotemporal patterns of bill length, suggested ongoing selection for longer bills in the United Kingdom. Last, bill length and COL4A5 variation were associated with usage of feeders, suggesting that longer bills may have evolved in the United Kingdom as a response to supplementary feeding.

Description: Nachev et al . (Reports, 6 January 2017, p. 75) present dilute nectar in bat-pollinated plants as "paradoxical" because bats prefer concentrated nectar, but paradox disappears with realistic assumptions about nectar evolution. We argue that they make unrealistic assumptions about the cognitive abilities of bat pollinators, invoke Weber’s law inappropriately, and cannot predict observed nectar concentrations of bat flowers or negative correlations between pollinator body size and average concentration.

Description: Pyke and Waser claim that our virtual pollination ecology model makes unrealistic assumptions and fails to predict observed nectar concentrations of bat flowers and negative correlations between pollinator body size and sugar concentration. In their comment, crucial model features are misrepresented, misunderstood, or ignored. Sensitivity to the supply/demand ratio explains both the equilibrium concentrations and the selection for lower concentrations by larger pollinators.

Description: One of the most important developments in Earth's history is the change from the anaerobic environment of the early Earth to the aerobic and highly oxidizing environment that we have today, with 21% atmospheric oxygen (O2) (1). Many geologists, atmospheric scientists, and biologists have studied this dramatic change in the redox state of Earth—the “great oxidation event” (2)—to understand when and how it took place. On page 1436 of this issue, Soo et al. report exciting new evidence toward answers to both these questions (3). Author: Robert E. Blankenship

Description: Animals that wield toxins face self-intoxication. Poison frogs have a diverse arsenal of defensive alkaloids that target the nervous system. Among them is epibatidine, a nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) agonist that is lethal at microgram doses. Epibatidine shares a highly conserved binding site with acetylcholine, making it difficult to evolve resistance yet maintain nAChR function. Electrophysiological assays of human and frog nAChR revealed that one amino acid replacement, which evolved three times in poison frogs, decreased epibatidine sensitivity but at a cost of acetylcholine sensitivity. However, receptor functionality was rescued by additional amino acid replacements that differed among poison frog lineages. Our results demonstrate how resistance to agonist toxins can evolve and that such genetic changes propel organisms toward an adaptive peak of chemical defense.

Description: Mutualistic symbiotic relationships are those in which both species benefit; for example, the vivid colors of coral reefs come from symbiotic algae that provide their living coral hosts with nutrients and oxygen through photosynthesis in exchange for protection. A similar mutualistic relationship exists between gut-dwelling bacteria and their animal hosts (1). It remains unclear, however, to what degree symbiosis has shaped host-microbial interactions and coevolution. On page 380 of this issue, Moeller et al. show that gut bacterial strains cospeciated with hominids (apes and humans) over the past 15 million years (2). These findings set the stage for exploring the evolutionary processes that underlie the symbiotic relationship between hominids and their gut-dwelling microbes. Authors: Julia A. Segre, Nick Salafsky

Description: Author: Caroline Ash

Description: Several unprecedented videos of gelatinous sea creatures called comb jellies, or ctenophores, now threaten to upend the standard view of the evolution of the so-called through-gut. Comb jellies, jellyfish, sea sponges, and a few other creatures all were thought to lack an anus, which meant they had to eat and defecate through a single hole. These are descendants of some of the first animals to arise, so it has been thought that the through-gut and anus were an innovation that came after those lineages emerged—and perhaps something that drove the diversity of new animal forms. But on 15 March, at the Ctenopolooza meeting in St. Augustine, Florida, evolutionary biologist William Browne of the University of Miami in Florida debuted films of comb jellies pooping—and it wasn't through their mouths. Browne's videos elicited gasps from the audience, who is now rethinking when the through-gut first evolved—and whether it may have emerged more than once. Author: Amy Maxmen

Description: For years, scientists have debated where dogs came from. Did wolves first forge their special relationship with humans in Europe, or in Asia? The answer, according to a new study, is yes. Researchers report that genetic analysis of hundreds of canines—including a nearly 5000-year-old dog unearthed on the east coast of Ireland—reveals that dogs may have been domesticated twice, once in Asia and once in Europe or the Near East, although European ancestry has mostly vanished from today's dogs. The findings could resolve a rift that has roiled the canine origins community—but experts say a lot more work needs to be done to confirm them. Author: David Grimm

Description: One of the greatest symbols of the birth of evolutionary biology is Darwin's first sketch of an evolutionary tree, above which he wrote: “I think.” Not only are evolutionary trees central to how scientists conceptualize evolutionary processes, Darwin's words also capture a key aspect of evolutionary science: It is difficult to observe, forcing researchers to rely heavily on inference. In recent decades, studies of fast-growing microorganisms have allowed hypotheses about evolutionary processes to be tested experimentally (1). On page 1147 of this issue, Baym et al. (2) report a device for visualizing evolutionary branching as bacteria grow across a meter-scale agar slab. The results offer important insights into evolutionary dynamics in spatially extended systems. Authors: Luke McNally, Sam P. Brown

Description: The field of molecular evolution is concerned with evolutionary changes in genes and genomes and the underlying driving forces behind those changes. Current studies in molecular evolution are almost entirely retrospective, with a focus on the mutations that were fixed during evolution, and the conclusions are often explanatory, offering no predictive insights. Because only a tiny fraction of all mutations that have ever occurred during evolution have been fixed, the “successes” that we see today provide an incomplete or even biased understanding of the evolutionary process. One way to circumvent this problem is to obtain the whole fitness landscape of a gene to understand, prospectively, chance and necessity in evolution (see the figure). Two studies in this issue, by Li et al. on page 837 (1) and Puchta et al. on page 840 (2), each take on this challenge by characterizing the in vivo fitness landscape of two RNA genes. Authors: Xionglei He, Li Liu

Description: Author: Sacha Vignieri

Description: For many evolutionary biologists, nothing gets their dander up faster than suggesting evolution is anything other than the process of natural selection, acting on random mutations. So some are uneasy that the John Templeton Foundation has awarded $8.7 million to U.K., Swedish, and U.S. researchers for experimental and theoretical work intended to put a revisionist view of evolution, the so-called extended evolutionary synthesis, on a sounder footing. Using a variety of plants, animals, and microbes, the researchers will study the possibility that organisms can influence their own evolution and that inheritance can take place through routes other than the genetic material. Critics are against evolutionary biologists accepting this money and argue that evolutionary theory already embraces the best of these ideas. But others are pleased as the money should help clarify the importance of different aspects of the extended synthesis. Author: Elizabeth Pennisi

Description: Massive open online courses (MOOCs) are often characterized as remedies to educational disparities related to social class. Using data from 68 MOOCs offered by Harvard and MIT between 2012 and 2014, we found that course participants from the United States tended to live in more-affluent and better-educated neighborhoods than the average U.S. resident. Among those who did register for courses, students with greater socioeconomic resources were more likely to earn a certificate. Furthermore, these differences in MOOC access and completion were larger for adolescents and young adults, the traditional ages where people find on-ramps into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) coursework and careers. Our findings raise concerns that MOOCs and similar approaches to online learning can exacerbate rather than reduce disparities in educational outcomes related to socioeconomic status.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Hansen, John D -- Reich, Justin -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Dec 4;350(6265):1245-8. doi: 10.1126/science.aab3782. Epub 2015 Dec 3.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. john_hansen@mail.harvard.edu. ; Office of Digital Learning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26785488" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Claiborne, Anne B -- English, Rebecca A -- Kahn, Jeffrey P -- 10002265/PHS HHS/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2016 Feb 12;351(6274):668-70. doi: 10.1126/science.aaf3091. Epub 2016 Feb 3.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Institute of Medicine, U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Washington, DC 20001, USA. aclaiborne@nas.edu. ; Institute of Medicine, U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Washington, DC 20001, USA. ; Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26842937" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Cohen, Jon -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2016 Jan 1;351(6268):16-9. doi: 10.1126/science.351.6268.16.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26721985" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Shanahan, Jesse -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2016 Jan 22;351(6271):418. doi: 10.1126/science.351.6271.418.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Jesse Shanahan is a master's student in astronomy at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. Send your story to SciCareerEditor@aaas.org.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26798017" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Global climate change is a major threat to biodiversity. Large-scale analyses have generally focused on the impacts of climate change on the geographic ranges of species and on phenology, the timing of ecological phenomena. We used long-term monitoring of the abundance of breeding birds across Europe and the United States to produce, for both regions, composite population indices for two groups of species: those for which climate suitability has been either improving or declining since 1980. The ratio of these composite indices, the climate impact indicator (CII), reflects the divergent fates of species favored or disadvantaged by climate change. The trend in CII is positive and similar in the two regions. On both continents, interspecific and spatial variation in population abundance trends are well predicted by climate suitability trends.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Stephens, Philip A -- Mason, Lucy R -- Green, Rhys E -- Gregory, Richard D -- Sauer, John R -- Alison, Jamie -- Aunins, Ainars -- Brotons, Lluis -- Butchart, Stuart H M -- Campedelli, Tommaso -- Chodkiewicz, Tomasz -- Chylarecki, Przemyslaw -- Crowe, Olivia -- Elts, Jaanus -- Escandell, Virginia -- Foppen, Ruud P B -- Heldbjerg, Henning -- Herrando, Sergi -- Husby, Magne -- Jiguet, Frederic -- Lehikoinen, Aleksi -- Lindstrom, Ake -- Noble, David G -- Paquet, Jean-Yves -- Reif, Jiri -- Sattler, Thomas -- Szep, Tibor -- Teufelbauer, Norbert -- Trautmann, Sven -- van Strien, Arco J -- van Turnhout, Chris A M -- Vorisek, Petr -- Willis, Stephen G -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2016 Apr 1;352(6281):84-7. doi: 10.1126/science.aac4858.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Conservation Ecology Group, School of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK. ; Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Centre for Conservation Science, The Lodge, Sandy, Bedfordshire SG19 2DL, UK. ; Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Centre for Conservation Science, The Lodge, Sandy, Bedfordshire SG19 2DL, UK. Conservation Science Group, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK. ; United States Geological Survey, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, 12100 Beech Forest Road, Laurel, MD 20708, USA. ; Institute of Integrative Biology, University of Liverpool, Crown Street, Liverpool L69 3BX, UK. ; Faculty of Biology, University of Latvia, Jelgavas iela 1, Riga, LV-1004, Latvia. ; Center for Mediterranean Forest Research, Centre Tecnologic Forestal de Catalunya, InForest JRU, Solsona 25280, Spain. REAF, Cerdanyola del Valles 08193, Catalonia, Spain. CSIC, Cerdanyola del Valles 08193, Catalonia, Spain. ; Conservation Science Group, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK. BirdLife International, The David Attenborough Building, Pembroke Street, Cambridge CB2 3QZ, UK. ; MITO2000 National Committee; c/o Dream Italia, Via Garibaldi 3, 52015, Pratovecchio-Stia, Arezzo, Italy. ; Ogolnopolskie Towarzystwo Ochrony Ptakow, Odrowaza 24,05-270 Marki, Poland. ; Museum and Institute of Zoology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Wilcza 64, 00-679 Warszawa, Poland. ; BirdWatch Ireland, Unit 20 Block D Bullford Business Campus, Kilcoole, County Wicklow, Ireland. ; Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Tartu, Vanemuise Street 46, 51014 Tartu, Estonia. Estonian Ornithological Society, Veski 4, 51005 Tartu, Estonia. ; Sociedad Espanola de Ornitologia/BirdLife Melquiades Biencinto, 34, 28053 Madrid. Spain. ; European Bird Census Council, Post Office Box 6521, 6503 GA Nijmegen, Netherlands. Sovon Dutch Centre for Field Ornithology, Post Office Box 6521, 6503 GA Nijmegen, Netherlands. Department of Animal Ecology and Ecophysiology, Institute for Water and Wetland Research, Radboud University, Post Office Box 9010, 6500 GL Nijmegen, Netherlands. ; Dansk Ornitologisk Forening-BirdLife Denmark and University of Aarhus, Vesterbrogade 140, 1620 Kobenhavn V, Denmark. ; European Bird Census Council-Catalan Ornithological Institute, Natural History Museum of Barcelona, Placa Leonardo da Vinci 4-5, 08019 Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. ; Section for Science, Nord University, 7600 Levanger, Norway. ; UMR7204 Sorbonne Universites-MNHN-CNRS-UPMC, CESCO, CRBPO, CP 135, 43 Rue Buffon, 75005 Paris, France. ; The Helsinki Lab of Ornithology, Finnish Museum of Natural History, Post Office Box 17, 00014 University of Helsinki, Finland. ; Biodiversity Unit, Department of Biology, Lund University, Ecology Building, S-223 62 Lund, Sweden. ; The British Trust for Ornithology, The Nunnery, Thetford, Norfolk IP24 2PU, UK. ; Natagora, Departement Etudes, Rue Nanon 98, B-5000 Namur, Belgium. ; Institute for Environmental Studies, Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic. Department of Zoology and Laboratory of Ornithology, Faculty of Science, Palacky University Olomouc, 17 Listopadu 50, 771 43 Olomouc, Czech Republic. ; Swiss Ornithological Institute, Seerose 1, 6204 Sempach, Switzerland. ; Institute of Environmental Sciences, University of Nyiregyhaza, Sostoi ut 31/b, 4400 Nyiregyhaza, Hungary. ; BirdLife Austria, Museumsplatz 1/10/8, A-1070 Vienna, Austria. ; Dachverband Deutscher Avifaunisten e.V. (Federation of German Avifaunists), An den Speichern 6, D-48157 Munster, Germany. ; Statistics Netherlands, Post Office Box 24500, 2490 HA The Hague, Netherlands. ; Sovon Dutch Centre for Field Ornithology, Post Office Box 6521, 6503 GA Nijmegen, Netherlands. Department of Animal Ecology and Ecophysiology, Institute for Water and Wetland Research, Radboud University, Post Office Box 9010, 6500 GL Nijmegen, Netherlands. ; Department of Zoology and Laboratory of Ornithology, Faculty of Science, Palacky University Olomouc, 17 Listopadu 50, 771 43 Olomouc, Czech Republic. Pan-European Common Bird Monitoring Scheme, Czech Society for Ornithology, Na Belidle 252/34, CZ-15000 Prague 5, Czech Republic.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27034371" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Stone, Richard -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2016 Mar 11;351(6278):1138-40. doi: 10.1126/science.351.6278.1138.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26965605" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉McNutt, Marcia -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2016 Feb 12;351(6274):641. doi: 10.1126/science.aaf4014. Epub 2016 Feb 11.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Marcia McNutt Editor-in-Chief Science Journals.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26912832" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Fahlgren, Noah -- Bart, Rebecca -- Herrera-Estrella, Luis -- Rellan-Alvarez, Ruben -- Chitwood, Daniel H -- Dinneny, Jose R -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2016 Feb 19;351(6275):824. doi: 10.1126/science.351.6275.824-a. Epub 2016 Feb 18.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, St. Louis, MO 63132, USA. ; Nacional de Genomica para la Biodiversidad, Irapuato, 36821, Mexico. ; Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, St. Louis, MO 63132, USA. jdinneny@carnegiescience.edu dchitwood@danforthcenter.org. ; Carnegie Institution for Science, Stanford, CA 94305, USA. jdinneny@carnegiescience.edu dchitwood@danforthcenter.org.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26912883" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Mervis, Jeffrey -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2016 Jan 8;351(6269):115. doi: 10.1126/science.351.6269.115.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26744390" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Mervis, Jeffrey -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2016 Jan 1;351(6268):10-1. doi: 10.1126/science.351.6268.10.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉With reporting from Science's news staff.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26721980" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Underwood, Emily -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2016 Apr 15;352(6283):277-8. doi: 10.1126/science.352.6283.277.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27081045" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Varmus, Harold -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2016 Apr 8;352(6282):123. doi: 10.1126/science.aaf7301.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Harold Varmus is the Lewis Thomas University Professor at the Meyer Cancer Center, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY; Senior Associate Member of the New York Genome Center, New York, NY; and former director of the U.S. National Cancer Institute. varmus@med.cornell.edu.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27124426" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Fu, He -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2016 Apr 22;352(6284):486. doi: 10.1126/science.352.6284.486.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉He Fu is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Microbiology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. For more on life and careers, visit sciencecareers.org. Send your story to SciCareerEditor@aaas.org.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27102487" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Alberts, Bruce -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2016 Jan 15;351(6270):207. doi: 10.1126/science.aaf2001.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Bruce Alberts is the Chancellor's Leadership Chair in Biochemistry and Biophysics for Science and Education at the University of California, San Francisco, CA, and emeritus editor-in-chief of Science. Bruce.Alberts@ucsf.edu.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26816352" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Exploiting binding affinities between molecules is an established practice in many fields, including biochemical separations, diagnostics, and drug development; however, using these affinities to control biomolecule release is a more recent strategy. Affinity-controlled release takes advantage of the reversible nature of noncovalent interactions between a therapeutic protein and a binding partner to slow the diffusive release of the protein from a vehicle. This process, in contrast to degradation-controlled sustained-release formulations such as poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) microspheres, is controlled through the strength of the binding interaction, the binding kinetics, and the concentration of binding partners. In the context of affinity-controlled release--and specifically the discovery or design of binding partners--we review advances in in vitro selection and directed evolution of proteins, peptides, and oligonucleotides (aptamers), aided by computational design.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Pakulska, Malgosia M -- Miersch, Shane -- Shoichet, Molly S -- Canadian Institutes of Health Research/Canada -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2016 Mar 18;351(6279):aac4750. doi: 10.1126/science.aac4750.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry, Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, and Donnelly Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. ; Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. ; Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry, Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, and Donnelly Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26989257" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Pennisi, Elizabeth -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2016 Apr 22;352(6284):394-5. doi: 10.1126/science.352.6284.394. Epub 2016 Apr 21.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27102455" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Blum, Arlene -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2016 Mar 11;351(6278):1117. doi: 10.1126/science.aaf5468. Epub 2016 Mar 10.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Arlene Blum is founder and executive director of the Green Science Policy Institute, Berkeley, CA. arlene@GreenSciencePolicy.org.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26965592" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Kaiser, Jocelyn -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2016 Jan 1;351(6268):14. doi: 10.1126/science.351.6268.14.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26721983" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Richmond, Geraldine -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2016 Jan 29;351(6272):427. doi: 10.1126/science.aaf2869. Epub 2016 Jan 28.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Geraldine Richmond is president of AAAS and Presidential Chair in Science and professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Oregon, Eugene, OR. richmond@oregon.edu.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26823402" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Kaiser, Jocelyn -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2016 Apr 1;352(6281):20. doi: 10.1126/science.352.6281.20.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27034352" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Kaiser, Jocelyn -- Couzin-Frankel, Jennifer -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2016 Jan 22;351(6271):325-6. doi: 10.1126/science.351.6271.325.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26797992" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Roman, Joe -- Kraska, James -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2016 Mar 18;351(6279):1258-60. doi: 10.1126/science.aad4247.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Gund Institute for Ecological Economics, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405, USA. jroman@uvm.edu. ; Stockton Center for the Study of International Law, U.S. Naval War College, Newport, RI 02841, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26989232" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Dinosaurs were once widely considered an evolutionary dead end without much bearing on the evolution of living animals. Yet, today it is clear that theropod dinosaurs gave rise to birds, and that dinosaurs are therefore still alive today. Similarly, placoderms, a group of extinct armored fishes, long held little or no interest to evolutionary biologists. However, discoveries from China are changing that by showing how important placoderms are to understanding the early assembly of the vertebrate body plan. On page 334 of this issue, Zhu et al. (1) report the discovery of a placoderm from Qujing in Yunnan, China, that fills a big gap in our understanding of how vertebrate jaws evolved. Author: John A. Long

Description: Repeated evolution of similar traits in organisms facing the same ecological challenges has long captured the interest of evolutionary biologists (1–4). Naturally occurring examples of “convergent evolution” offer new opportunities to ask about predictability in evolution. Do complex genomes mean that there are endless possibilities for adapting to an ecological challenge? Or must evolution target the same genes, or even the same amino acids in the same proteins, in order to increase the fitness and therefore survival of different species facing similar challenges? Natarajan et al. (5), on page 336 of this issue, provide an example of an integrated approach to answer these questions. By using a combination of genetic data with experimental tests, they show that evolution of a new protein function in response to low-oxygen, high-altitude conditions can occur through different genetic mechanisms across a wide diversity of avian species living at high and low elevations. Author: Jamie T. Bridgham

Description: Author: Sacha Vignieri

Description: Some species, such as the giraffe or bottlenose dolphin, are immediately recognizable and might seem immutable. In fact, their evolutionary stories are often more complicated. Regional populations of giraffe with distinct pelage patterns have only recently been recognized as four different species (1), and the number of species represented by what we recognize as the bottlenose dolphin was historically as many as 20, refined down to one, then two, and the question is still being resolved (2). On page 477 of this issue, de Manuel et al. (3) describe the relationship between two other iconic species in unprecedented detail, comparing whole genomes from populations of bonobo (Pan paniscus) and chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes). They report evidence for gene flow between these species, contributing to our increasing appreciation for the complexities of the process of speciation. Author: A. Rus Hoelzel

Description: In convergent evolution, different species independently acquire similar traits. Knowing whether divergent species use the same or different genetic solutions to adapt to similar selection pressures can illuminate innate constraints on underlying molecular networks. Most cases of convergence that are understood at the genetic level are relatively simple, involving one or a few genes. On page 1431 of this issue, Yeaman et al. (1) report mapping of locally adaptive genes in lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) and interior spruce (the species complex that includes Picea engelmannii and Picea glauca) (see the photo). The authors show that many genes implicated in local adaptation are shared among the two species. Author: Angela M. Hancock

Description: Author: Annalisa VanHook

Description: Author: Sacha Vignieri

Description: Human activities alter ecosystems around the planet, often rendering environmental conditions unfavorable for plant and animal survival. In the salt marshes along North America's Atlantic coast, the influx of industrial waste has caused chemical pollutants to accumulate at lethal levels, causing the disappearance of many species from affected sites. Yet, multiple populations of the Atlantic killifish (Fundulus heteroclitus) have adapted to cope with levels of pollution orders of magnitude higher than those that members of the same species from unaffected habitats can tolerate. On page 1305 of this issue, Reid et al. (1) provide strong evidence that adaptation has occurred rapidly and through similar genetic changes in multiple populations of killifish that have independently colonized polluted habitats. Authors: Michael Tobler, Zachary W. Culumber

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Kloor, Keith -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Feb 13;347(6223):699. doi: 10.1126/science.347.6223.699.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25678635" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Bernstein, Rachel -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Apr 17;348(6232):269. doi: 10.1126/science.348.6232.269.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25883332" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Hackett, Perry -- Carroll, Dana -- P01 HD032652/HD/NICHD NIH HHS/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Mar 20;347(6228):1324. doi: 10.1126/science.347.6228.1324.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Genetics, Cell Biology, and Development, Center for Genome Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA. hacke004@umn.edu. ; Department of Biochemistry, School of Medicine, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25792322" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Dajani, Rana -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Nov 27;350(6264):1043. doi: 10.1126/science.350.6264.1043-b.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Biology and Biotechnology, Hashemite University, Zarqa, Jordan. rdajani@hu.edu.jo.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26612944" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Merrigan, Kathleen -- Griffin, Timothy -- Wilde, Parke -- Robien, Kimberly -- Goldberg, Jeanne -- Dietz, William -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Oct 9;350(6257):165-6. doi: 10.1126/science.aab2031. Epub 2015 Oct 1.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration, the George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052, USA. kmerrigan@gwu.edu. ; Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University, Medford, MA 02155, USA. ; Milken Institute School of Public Health, the George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26429883" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Kohane, Isaac S -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Jul 3;349(6243):37-8. doi: 10.1126/science.aab1328. Epub 2015 Jul 2.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Biomedical Informatics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA. isaac_kohane@harvard.edu.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26138968" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Mervis, Jeffrey -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Dec 18;350(6267):1454. doi: 10.1126/science.350.6267.1454.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26680170" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Kollipara, Puneet -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Mar 27;347(6229):1403-4. doi: 10.1126/science.347.6229.1403-b.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25814561" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉