Reproductive isolation (RI) is a core concept in evolutionary biology and the basis by which biological species are defined. Despite this, the term is used in different ways and efforts to quantify RI from data have used vastly different approaches. In this paper, we attempt to clarify key issues about RI, including what it is, how it can be quantified in principle, and how it can be measured in practice.

Host-parasite coevolution is a reciprocal process of adaptations and counter-adaptations. When a parasite evolves to have heightened infectivity, its host may respond by evolving to have heightened resistance.

We found that when tetraploid individuals are less or as fit as their diploid progenitors, fixation of polyploidy is only possible when genetic drift is stronger than natural selection. The necessity of drift for tetraploid fixation holds even when polyploidy confers a selective advantage, except for scenarios where tetraploids are much fitter than diploids. Our results bring a novel, non-exclusive explanation for the unequal temporal and spatial distribution of polyploid species.

Social interactions among viruses are diverse and pervasive, with the potential to affect every stage of the viral lifecycle. Here, we explore some of the challenges and opportunities that these interactions present for evolutionary biology.

We investigated effects of artificial selection for locomotor activity on the death-feigning behavior, sprint speed, and biogenic amines in the red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum. There were significantly differences in death-feigning behavior and sprint speed between selected strains, but not biogenic amines.

Male-specific genetics markers in the banded gecko, Coleonyx brevis, indicate an XX/XY sex chromosome system. These results support a sex chromosome turnover within the genus Coleonyx.

Yellow and red autumn leaves typical to temperate/boreal trees defend important resources released following the photosynthetic system breakdown, and mobilized for storage to be used in the next spring. This coloration, especially red, defends from excess light and oxidative stress and against herbivores. I describe the hypotheses, findings and disagreements about the functions and evolution of yellow/red autumn leaves.

Reproductive isolation (RI) is a core concept in evolutionary biology and the basis by which biological species are defined. Despite this, the term is used in different ways and efforts to quantify RI from data have used vastly different approaches. In this paper, we attempt to clarify key issues about RI, including what it is, how it can be quantified in principle, and how it can be measured in practice.

Comparative gene coverage analysis revealed XX/XY sex determination system in the blind lizard Dibamus deharvengi, the representative of a lineage of lizards with potentially basal phylogenetic position among squamate reptiles. The X chromosome contains genes with homologs scattered across chicken chromosomes 8, 12, 13, 18, 30 and 33, and the Y chromosome seems to be largely degenerated.

Host-parasite coevolution is a reciprocal process of adaptations and counter-adaptations. When a parasite evolves to have heightened infectivity, its host may respond by evolving to have heightened resistance.

Code review is the process of either informally (as part of a group, as colleagues) or formally (as part of the peer review process) checking and evaluating each other's code and is a critical method of reducing errors and increasing research reproducibility and reliability. In this paper, we provide a detailed commentary on how to effectively review code (including introducing the four Rs), how to set up your project to enable this form of review and detail its possibleimplementation at several stages throughout the research process.

Yellow and red autumn leaves typical to temperate/boreal trees defend important resources released following the photosynthetic system breakdown, and mobilized for storage to be used in the next spring. This coloration, especially red, defends from excess light and oxidative stress and against herbivores. I describe the hypotheses, findings and disagreements about the functions and evolution of yellow/red autumn leaves.

Across all birds we found significant effects of developmental mode, foraging niche, social bonding and territoriality on relative brain size. This suggests that developmental constraints, selection for complex motor skills whilst foraging, and social factors generally imposes important selection on avian brain size. However, we also found extensive heterogeneity among major avian clades in the relative importance of different variables, implying that the significance of particular ecological and social factors for driving brain size evolution is often clade- and context-specific.

Schematic representation of STR mutations and their possible impact on phenotype. STR mutations frequently arise from misalignment of DNA strands. Strand misalignment may lead to expansions or contractions in repeat copy number depending on which strand the loop forms on (four different mechanisms are represented on top). Many STRs show length-dependent mutation rates, which can result in bimodal allele length distributions (bottom left). STRs positioned upstream of a gene's transcription start site are depicted at the bottom. Green boxes indicate STR units and black boxes indicate SNPs. The number of green boxes shows the STR copy number of different alleles. This variation serves as the y-axis of the gene expression graph and the phenotype graph on the right side.