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Sex chromosomes have independently evolved in species with separate sexes in most lineages across the tree of life. However, the well-accepted canonical model of sex chromosome evolution is not universally supported. There is no single…
Chromosomal rearrangements, which shuffle DNA throughout the genome, are an important source of divergence across taxa. Using a paired-end read approach with Illumina sequence data for archaic humans, I identify changes in genome structure…
The X chromosome is present as a single copy in the heterogametic sex, and this hemizygosity is expected to drive unusual patterns of evolution on the X relative to the autosomes. For example, the hemizgosity of the X may lead to a lower…
Phylogenetic networks are a generalization of evolutionary or phylogenetic trees that are commonly used to represent the evolution of species which cross with one another. A special type of phylogenetic network is an {\em $X$-cactus}, which…
As organisms are faced with intense rapidly changing selective pressures, new genetic material is required to facilitate adaptation. Among sources of genetic novelty, gene duplications and transposable elements (TEs) offer new genes or new…
The theory of evolution states that the diversity of species can be explained by descent with modification. Therefore, all living beings are related through a common ancestor. This evolutionary process must have left traces in our molecular…
Thousands of candidate human-specific regulatory sequences (HSRS) have been identified, supporting the hypothesis that unique to human phenotypes result from human-specific alterations of genomic regulatory networks. Here, conservation…
Transfer RNAs (tRNAs) are essential components of the translational machinery. Their abundance and diversity shape decoding capacity and protein synthesis efficiency and accuracy. Because tRNA abundance is encoded in the genome through tDNA…
Salamanders (urodela) have among the largest vertebrate genomes, ranging in size from 10 to over 80 pg. The urodela are divided into ten extant families each with a characteristic range in genome size. Although changes in genome size often…
The Rosids is one of the largest groups of flowering plants, with 140 families and ~70,000 species. Previous phylogenetic studies of the rosids have primarily utilized organelle genes that likely differ in evolutionary histories from…
We discuss two different ways of chromosomes' and genomes' evolution. Purifying selection dominates in large panmictic populations, where Mendelian law of independent gene assortment is valid. If the populations are small, recombination…
The birth of new genes is an important motor of evolutionary innovation. Whereas many new genes arise by gene duplication, others originate at genomic regions that do not contain any gene or gene copy. Some of these newly expressed genes…
The genetic material of a eukaryotic cell comprises both nuclear DNA (ncDNA) and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). These differ markedly in several aspects but nevertheless must encode proteins that are compatible with one another. Here we…
We present a population synthesis study of the observed properties of the magnetars, which allows for X-ray selection effects, investigating the hypothesis that they are drawn from a population of progenitors that are more massive than…
The natural evolution of life seems to proceed through steps characterized by phases of relatively rapid changes, followed by longer, more stable periods. In the light of the string-theory derived physical scenario proposed in [1], we…
In this communication, direction of evolutionary variability of parameters of genome size and structurally functional activity of plants in angiosperm taxa among life forms, are analysed. It is shown that, in the Cretaceous-Cenozoic era,…
Most of the DNA that composes a complex organism is non-coding and defined as junk. Even the coding part is composed of genes that affect the phenotype differently. Therefore, a random mutation has an effect on the specimen fitness that…
The current theory of evolution is almost the one Darwin and Wallace proposed two centuries ago and the following discoveries e.g., Mendelian genetics and neutral mutation theory have not made significant modifications. The current…
Estimating the phylogeny of the genus Homo is entering a new phase of vastly improved data and methodology. There is increasing evidence of 6 to 10 competing species/lineages at any point in the last half million years, making the…
We updated the agent based Monte Carlo code HERITAGE that simulates human evolution within restrictive environments such as interstellar, sub-light speed spacecraft in order to include the effects of population genetics. We incorporated a…