Well-Annotated microRNAomes Do Not Evidence Pervasive miRNA Loss.

microRNAs are conserved noncoding regulatory factors implicated in diverse physiological and developmental processes in multicellular organisms, as causal macroevolutionary agents and for phylogeny inference. However, the conservation and phylogenetic utility of microRNAs has been questioned on evidence of pervasive loss. Here, we show that apparent widespread losses are, largely, an artefact of poorly sampled and annotated microRNAomes.

Cyanobacteria and the Great Oxidation Event: evidence from genes and fossils.

Cyanobacteria are among the most ancient of evolutionary lineages, oxygenic photosynthesizers that may have originated before 3.0 Ga, as evidenced by free oxygen levels. Throughout the Precambrian, cyanobacteria were one of the most important drivers of biological innovations, strongly impacting early Earth's environments.

Evolution of multicellularity coincided with increased diversification of cyanobacteria and the Great Oxidation Event.

Cyanobacteria are among the most diverse prokaryotic phyla, with morphotypes ranging from unicellular to multicellular filamentous forms, including those able to terminally (i.e., irreversibly) differentiate in form and function.

Gene copy number variation and its significance in cyanobacterial phylogeny.

Background: In eukaryotes, variation in gene copy numbers is often associated with deleterious effects, but may also have positive effects. For prokaryotes, studies on gene copy number variation are rare. Previous studies have suggested that high numbers of rRNA gene copies can be advantageous in environments with changing resource availability, but further association of gene copies and phenotypic traits are not documented.

Evolution of reproductive mode variation and host associations in a sexual-asexual complex of aphid parasitoids.

Background: The Lysiphlebus fabarum group is a taxonomically poorly resolved complex of aphid parasitoids, presently split into three described species that comprise sexual (arrhenotokous) and asexual (thelytokous) lineages of unknown relationship. Specifically, it is unclear how asexuals evolved from sexuals in this system, to what extent reproductive modes are still connected by genetic exchange, how much the complex is structured by geography or by host-associated differentiation, and whether species designations are valid. Using a combination of population genetic and phylogenetic approaches, we addressed these issues in a comprehensive sample of parasitoid wasps from across Europe.

Evolution of cyanobacterial morphotypes: Taxa required for improved phylogenomic approaches.

Within prokaryotes cyanobacteria represent one of the oldest and morphologically most diverse phyla on Earth. The rise of oxygen levels in the atmosphere 2.32-2.

The origin of multicellularity in cyanobacteria.

Background: Cyanobacteria are one of the oldest and morphologically most diverse prokaryotic phyla on our planet. The early development of an oxygen-containing atmosphere approximately 2.45-2.

The evolutionary path to terminal differentiation and division of labor in cyanobacteria.

A common trait often associated with multicellularity is cellular differentiation, which is a spatial separation of tasks through the division of labor. In principle, the division of labor does not necessarily have to be constrained to a multicellular setting. In this study, we focus on the possible evolutionary paths leading to terminal differentiation in cyanobacteria.