Publications by authors named "Maggs X"
A synthetic review: natural history of amniote reproductive modes in light of comparative evolutionary genomics.
Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc
February 2025
Article Synopsis
- The text discusses the debate on whether the ancestral reproductive mode of amniotes (including squamates like snakes and lizards) was oviparity (egg-laying) or viviparity (live-birth), emphasizing the importance of genomic transitions between these modes for understanding amniote evolution.
- It reviews five key biological processes—eggshell formation, embryonic retention, placentation, calcium transport, and maternal-fetal immune dynamics—that may change during these transitions, proposing testable hypotheses about parity mode evolution in these species.
- Additionally, the author introduces the nucleation site hypothesis as a potential early explanation for viviparity in lepidosaurs and offers a unifying framework that contrasts existing models of amni
The ability of organisms to adapt to sudden extreme environmental changes produces some of the most drastic examples of rapid phenotypic evolution. The Mexican Tetra, Astyanax mexicanus, is abundant in the surface waters of northeastern Mexico, but repeated colonizations of cave environments have resulted in the independent evolution of troglomorphic phenotypes in several populations. Here, we present three chromosome-scale assemblies of this species, for one surface and two cave populations, enabling the first whole-genome comparisons between independently evolved cave populations to evaluate the genetic basis for the evolution of adaptation to the cave environment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe ability of organisms to adapt to sudden extreme environmental changes produces some of the most drastic examples of rapid phenotypic evolution. The Mexican Tetra, , is abundant in the surface waters of northeastern Mexico, but repeated colonizations of cave environments have resulted in the independent evolution of troglomorphic phenotypes in several populations. Here, we present three chromosome-scale assemblies of this species, for one surface and two cave populations, enabling the first whole-genome comparisons between independently evolved cave populations to evaluate the genetic basis for the evolution of adaptation to the cave environment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF