In avocado and certain wild relatives in Lauraceae, a highly synchronized daily rhythm of floral sex timing promotes cross-pollination between two ...

The repeated evolution of similar phenotypes, or convergent evolution, is widespread in nature, but there are few studies investigating the genetic mechanisms across wide evolutionary timescales. This...

Approaches combining genetic association and Perturb-seq data that link genetic variants to functional programs to traits are described.

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Host-parasite arms races facilitate rapid evolution and can fuel speciation. Cuculus cuckoos are deceptive egg mimics that exhibit a broad diversity of counterfeit egg phenotypes, representing host-ad...

Background Butterfly eyespots are striking examples of evolutionary novelty arising through the repurposing of ancestral genetic pathways, including pathways involved in wound healing. Given the activ...

Singapore, 24 October 2025 — Scientists from the National University of Singapore (NUS) have discovered a simple DNA “switch” that helps tropical butterflies adjust the size of their wing eyespots in ...

Transcriptional and functional analyses reveal a taxon-specific promoter at the Antennapedia gene that is responsible for seasonal plasticity in butterfly eyespots.

A microRNA that arose at the origin of eumetazoans regulates cell adhesion and signaling in C. elegans through conserved targets.

Promoters are DNA sequences that help to initiate transcription. Point mutations can create de-novo promoters, which can consequently transcribe inactive genes or create novel transcripts. We know lit...

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Nature Communications - Here, the authors investigate the interaction of pigment distribution and cuticle density within butterfly wing scales. They use ptychographic X-ray computed tomography to...

Birds have evolved a unique sex chromosome dosage compensation mechanism involving the male-biased microRNA (miR-2954), which is essential for male survival by regulating the expression of dosage-sens...

Adaptive phenotypic plasticity allows organisms to display distinct phenotypes in response to variable environments, but little is known about the genomic changes that promote the evolution of plastic...

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In Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths), the genomic region around the gene cortex is a “hotspot” locus, repeatedly implicated in generating intraspecific melanic wing color polymorphisms across 100 mi...