Protein evolution or engineering studies are traditionally focused on amino acid
substitutions and the way these contribute to fitness. Meanwhile, the insertion and deletion …

Males of Caenorhabditis elegans provide a crucial practical tool in the laboratory, but, as the
rarer and more finicky sex, have not enjoyed the same depth of research attention as …

Most animals and plants have associated microorganisms, collectively referred to as their
microbiomes, which can provide essential functions. Given their importance, host-associated …

Mutation is the ultimate source of all genetic variation, and over the last 10 years the ready
availability of whole-genome sequencing has permitted direct estimation of mutation rate for …

Caenorhabditis nematodes form an excellent model for studying how the mode of
reproduction affects genetic diversity, as some species reproduce via outcrossing whereas …

The 1986 disaster at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant transformed the surrounding
region into the most radioactive landscape known on the planet. Whether or not this sudden …

Important clues about natural selection can be gleaned from discrepancies between the
properties of segregating genetic variants and of mutations accumulated experimentally …

What determines the rate (μ) and molecular spectrum of mutation is a fundamental question.
The prevailing hypothesis asserts that natural selection against deleterious mutations has …

Short tandem repeats (STRs) have orders of magnitude higher mutation rates than single
nucleotide variants (SNVs) and have been proposed to accelerate evolution in many …

Some epigenetic information can be transmitted between generations without changes in
the underlying DNA sequence. Changes in epigenetic regulators, termed epimutations, can …