Abstract. Adaptation to ant and/or termite consumption (myrmecophagy) in mammals constitutes a textbook example of convergent evolution, being independentl

The emergence of a chemical system capable of self-replication and evolution is a critical event in the origin of life. RNA polymerase ribozymes can replicate RNA, but their large size and structural ...

A study presents an approach to establish and track a new endosymbiotic partnership by implanting bacteria in a non-host fungus and shows that stable inheritance of the implanted bacteria is possible ...

Do you want to lead groundbreaking research in computational biology? Join us at EMBL-EBI! EMBL's European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) is seeking talented and highly-motivated scientists to jo...

Flowering plants have many modes of sexual reproduction, notably varying from selfing to outcrossing, and from bisexual flowers to individuals with separate sexes (dioecy). These reproductive modes ...

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...

Amphioxus are small marine chordates that have broad ecological ranges, yet as adults form local settlements and exhibit limited mobility. Genomic surveys of two amphioxus species have suggested that they rank among the most genetically diverse metazoans. Here, we present the first accurate assessment of genomic diversity in the European amphioxus ( Branchiostoma lanceolatum ) and investigate the processes underlying this diversity. We leverage high-coverage whole-genome sequencing data from multiple individuals sampled at two geographically distant Atlantic and Mediterranean locations. Consistent with previous estimates in other amphioxus species, we measure exceptionally high genomic diversity, with an average heterozygosity of 2.73% in B. lanceolatum . Despite the large geographic separation between sampling sites, population differentiation is minimal, indicating extensive gene flow among distant adult settlements. Phylogenetic analyses combined with population genetic simulations confirm that this elevated genomic diversity is primarily driven by a large effective population size. Although adult amphioxus have limited mobility, our results indicate that long-distance larval dispersal mediated by ocean currents is sufficient to generate a near-panmictic population structure across their broad ecological range. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. Swiss National Science Foundation, 207853 Agence Nationale de la Recherche, ANR-21-CE13-0034

Assistant Professor - Virology

Abstract. The allopatric model of speciation has dominated our understanding of speciation biology and biogeography since the Modern Synthesis. It is uncon

CLASSIC is a high-throughput genetic profiling platform that combines long- and short-read next-generation-sequencing modalities to quantitatively assess pools of constructs of arbitrary length containing diverse genetic part compositions.