Featured videos
View featured videos from across the BMC-series journals
Page 82 of 95
Shuffling of modular protein domains is an important source of evolutionary innovation. Formins are a family of actin-organizing proteins that share a conserved FH2 domain but their overall domain architecture...
Lysozymes are important model enzymes in biomedical research with a ubiquitous taxonomic distribution ranging from phages up to plants and animals. Their main function appears to be defence against pathogens, ...
In primates, infection is an important force driving gene evolution, and this is reflected in the importance of infectious disease in human morbidity today. The beta-defensins are key components of the innate ...
Invertebrate and vertebrate GATA transcription factors play important roles in ectoderm and mesendoderm development, as well as in cardiovascular and blood cell fate specification. However, the assignment of e...
Annotated phylogenetic trees that display the evolution of transcription factor binding in regulatory regions are useful for e.g. 1) narrowing down true positive predicted binding sites, providing predictions ...
Ectocarpus siliculosus virus-1 (EsV-1) is a lysogenic dsDNA virus belonging to the super family of nucleocytoplasmic large DNA viruses (NCLDV) that infect Ectocarpus siliculosus, a marine filamentous brown alga. ...
Comparative sequencing studies among a wide range of taxonomic groups, including fungi, have led to the discovery that reproductive genes evolve more rapidly than other genes. However, for fungal reproductive ...
Lineage-specific genes, the genes that are restricted to a limited subset of related organisms, may be important in adaptation. In parasitic organisms, lineage-specific gene products are possible targets for v...
The phylogenetic distribution of large-scale genome structure (i.e. mosaic compositional patchiness) has been explored mainly by analytical ultracentrifugation of bulk DNA. However, with the availability of la...
The strength of selective constraints operating on amino acid sites of proteins has a multifactorial nature. In fact, amino acid sites within proteins coevolve due to their functional and/or structural relatio...
The melatonin receptor subfamily contains three members Mel1a, Mel1b and Mel1c, found in all vertebrates except for Mel1c which is found only in fish, Xenopus species and the chicken. Another receptor, the mel...
The evolutionary dynamics of xenobiotic resistance depends on how resistance mutations influence the fitness of their bearers, both in the presence and absence of xenobiotic selection pressure. In cases of mul...
The pregnane X receptor (PXR) shows the highest degree of cross-species sequence diversity of any of the vertebrate nuclear hormone receptors. In this study, we determined the pharmacophores for activation of ...
Malagasy tenrecs belong to the Afrotherian clade of placental mammals and comprise three subfamilies divided in eight genera (Tenrecinae: Tenrec, Echinops, Setifer and Hemicentetes; Oryzorictinae: Oryzorictes, Li...
The mammalian heme peroxidases (MHPs) are a medically important group of enzymes. Included in this group are myeloperoxidase, eosinophil peroxidase, lactoperoxidase, and thyroid peroxidase. These enzymes are a...
Using phylogenetic approaches, the expectation that parallel cladogenesis should occur between parasites and hosts has been validated in some studies, but most others provided evidence for frequent host shifts...
Mammalian genomes consist of regions differing in GC content, referred to as isochores or GC-content domains. The scientific debate is still open as to whether such compositional heterogeneity is a selected or...
Hybridization, or the interbreeding of two species, is now recognized as an important process in the evolution of many organisms. However, the extent to which hybridization results in the transfer of genetic m...
This paper tests Vrba's resource-use hypothesis, which predicts that generalist species have lower specialization and extinction rates than specialists, using the 879 species of South American mammals. We test...
The Azoospermia Factor c (AZFc) region of the human Y chromosome is a unique product of segmental duplication. It consists almost entirely of very long amplicons, represented by different colors, and is frequentl...
While full genome sequences are still only available for a handful of taxa, large collections of partial gene sequences are available for many more. The alignment of partial gene sequences results in a multipl...
There is spectacular morphological diversity in nature but lineages typically display a limited range of phenotypes. Because developmental processes generate the phenotypic variation that fuels natural selecti...
The mammalian neurohypophysial hormones, vasopressin and oxytocin are involved in osmoregulation and uterine smooth muscle contraction respectively. All jawed vertebrates contain at least one homolog each of v...
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a recently discovered class of non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) which play important roles in eukaryotic gene regulation. miRNA biogenesis and activation is a complex process involving multiple ...
α-Amylase inhibitors are attractive candidates for the control of seed weevils, as these insects are highly dependent on starch as an energy source. In this study, we aimed to reveal the structure and diversit...
Bioinformatic tools are needed to store and access the rapidly growing phylogenetic data. These tools should enable users to identify existing phylogenetic trees containing a specified taxon or set of taxa and...
Alternative selection of splice sites in tandem donors and acceptors is a major mode of alternative splicing. Here, we analyzed whether in-frame tandem sites leading to subtle mRNA insertions/deletions of 3, 6...
The Amazon molly (Poecilia formosa) is a small unisexual fish that has been suspected of being threatened by extinction from the stochastic accumulation of slightly deleterious mutations that is caused by Muller'...
Horizontal gene transfer, also called lateral gene transfer, frequently occurs among prokaryotic organisms, and is considered an important force in their evolution. However, there are relatively few reports of...
Amongst the most commonly used molecular markers for plant phylogenetic studies are the nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacers (ITS). Intra-individual variability of these multicopy regions is a very c...
In large asexual populations where beneficial mutations may co-occur and recombination is absent, the fate of beneficial mutations can be significantly affected by competition (i.e., clonal interference). Theo...
The main components of the spatial genetic structure of the populations are neighbourhood size and isolation by distance. These may be inferred from the allele frequencies across a series of populations within...
In recent years, several new hypotheses on phylogenetic relations among arthropods have been proposed on the basis of DNA sequences. One of the challenged hypotheses is the monophyly of hexapods. This discussi...
Interspecific hybrids of frogs of the genus Xenopus result in sterile hybrid males and fertile hybrid females. Previous work has demonstrated a dramatic asymmetrical pattern of misexpression in hybrid males compa...
DNA barcoding of life using a standardized COI sequence was proposed as a species identification system, and as a method for detecting putative new species. Previous tests in birds showed that individuals can ...
A mismatch has emerged between models and data of host-parasite evolution. Theory readily predicts that parasites can promote host diversity through mechanisms such as disruptive selection. Yet, despite these ...
If the insect innate immune system is to be used as a potential blocking step in transmission of malaria, then it will require targeting one or a few genes with highest relevance and ease of manipulation. The ...
Computer-assisted analyses have shown that all bacterial genomes contain a small percentage of open reading frames with a frameshift or in-frame stop codon We report here a comparative analysis of these interr...
In recent years there has been a trend of leaving the strict molecular clock in order to infer dating of speciations and other evolutionary events. Explicit modeling of substitution rates and divergence times ...
The evolution of disease resistance and immune function may be limited if increased immunocompetence comes at the expense of other fitness-determining traits. Both the maintenance of an immune system and the d...
Due to its history, with a high number of migration events, the Mediterranean basin represents a challenging area for population genetic studies. A large number of genetic studies have been carried out in the ...
The observed correlation between ultraviolet light incidence and skin color, together with the geographical apportionment of skin reflectance among human populations, suggests an adaptive value for the pigment...
Little is known about the molecular mechanism which regulates how the whole cranium is shaped. Mouse models currently available for genetic research include several hundreds of unique inbred strains and geneti...
Mutations in human bestrophin 1 are associated with at least three autosomal-dominant macular dystrophies including Best disease, adult onset vitelliform macular dystrophy and autosomal dominant vitreo-retinoc...
Geographic distribution of the genetic diversity in domestic animals, particularly mitochondrial DNA, has often been used to infer centers of domestication. The underlying presumption is that phylogeographic p...
Toxin profiling helps in cataloguing the toxin present in the venom as well as in searching for novel toxins. The former helps in understanding potential pharmacological profile of the venom and evolution of t...
The cytoplasmic ribosomal small subunit (SSU, 18S) ribosomal RNA (rRNA) is the most frequently-used gene for molecular phylogenetic studies. However, information regarding its secondary structure is neglected ...
The impact of environmental gradients on the evolution of life history traits is a central issue in macroecology and evolutionary biology. A number of hypotheses have been formulated to explain factors shaping...
Poxviruses are important pathogens of humans, livestock and wild animals. These large dsDNA viruses have a set of core orthologs whose gene order is extremely well conserved throughout poxvirus genera. They al...
The theory of Muller' Ratchet predicts that small asexual populations are doomed to accumulate ever-increasing deleterious mutation loads as a consequence of the magnified power of genetic drift and mutation t...
View featured videos from across the BMC-series journals
For BMC Evolutionary Biology (former title)
2022 Citation Impact
3.4 - 2-year Impact Factor
3.6 - 5-year Impact Factor
1.061 - SNIP (Source Normalized Impact per Paper)
0.968 - SJR (SCImago Journal Rank)
2023 Speed
29 days submission to first editorial decision for all manuscripts (Median)
193 days submission to accept (Median)
2023 Usage
1,882,764 downloads
3,013 Altmetric mentions
Transparency and Openness
TOP Factor score - 9
Peer Community In
BMC Ecology and Evolution welcomes submissions of pre-print manuscripts recommended by the Peer Community In (PCI) platform. The journal may use PCI reviews and recommendations for the review process if appropriate. For instructions to submit your PCI recommended article, please click here. To find out more, please read our blog.