The evolutionary emergence of animals is one of the most significant episodes in the history
of life, but its timing remains poorly constrained. Molecular clocks estimate that animals …

The tobacco cutworm, Spodoptera litura, is among the most widespread and destructive
agricultural pests, feeding on over 100 crops throughout tropical and subtropical Asia. By …

Background The functional divergence of duplicate genes (ohnologues) retained from whole
genome duplication (WGD) is thought to promote evolutionary diversification. However …

Understanding the factors that affect water quality and the ecological services provided by
freshwater ecosystems is an urgent global environmental issue. Predicting how water quality …

Divergence-time estimation based on molecular phylogenies and the fossil record has
provided insights into fundamental questions of evolutionary biology. In Bayesian node …

The sweetpotato whitefly Bemisia tabaci is a highly destructive agricultural and ornamental
crop pest. It damages host plants through both phloem feeding and vectoring plant …

The intestinal epithelium serves critical physiologic functions that are shared among all
vertebrates. However, it is unknown how the transcriptional regulatory mechanisms …

To elucidate the origins of the Japanese mammalian fauna from the perspectives of
biogeography and community ecology, I reviewed molecular phylogenetic and …

Mitochondrial uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1) is essential for nonshivering thermogenesis in
brown adipose tissue and is widely accepted to have played a key thermoregulatory role in …

Background The taxonomy of pines (genus Pinus) is widely accepted and a robust gene tree
based on entire plastome sequences exists. However, there is a large discrepancy in …