The evolution of phenotypic similarities between species, known as convergence, illustrates
that populations can respond predictably to ecological challenges. Convergence often …

Populations adapt to novel environments in two distinct ways: selection on pre-existing
genetic variation and selection on new mutations. These alternative sources of beneficial …

Homology—a similar trait shared by different species and derived from common ancestry,
such as a seal's fin and a bird's wing—is one of the most fundamental yet challenging …

In animals, Hox transcription factors define regional identity in distinct anatomical domains.
How Hox genes encode this specificity is a paradox, because different Hox proteins bind …

GWAS have identified> 200 risk loci for Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). The majority of
disease associations are known to be driven by regulatory variants. To identify the putative …

The search for the alleles that matter, the quantitative trait nucleotides (QTNs) that underlie
heritable variation within populations and divergence among them, is a popular pursuit. But …

What is the nature of the genetic changes underlying phenotypic evolution? We have
catalogued 1008 alleles described in the literature that cause phenotypic differences among …

Biologists have long sought to understand which genes and what kinds of changes in their
sequences are responsible for the evolution of morphological diversity. Here, I outline eight …

The molecular mechanisms underlying major phenotypic changes that have evolved
repeatedly in nature are generally unknown. Pelvic loss in different natural populations of …

Many ecologically important traits have a complex genetic basis, with the potential for
mutations at many different genes to shape the phenotype. Even so, studies of local …