Advances in biological science are leading to a striking new understanding of how organisms evolve. Charles Darwin’s ‘natural selection’ remains the principal mechanism, but which traits are favoured is partly determined by properties of the organism itself, leading to differences between species in the ability to evolve. In a much-anticipated new book that lays out the new perspective, an international team of leading scientists describe how the evolutionary process has itself evolved over time – and continues to do so.

Asteraceae, a family of flowering plants, are the most diverse group of flowering plants in the world. This plant family comprises around 34,000 species. An international research team with the participation of the University of Göttingen has now compiled and analysed a new global database on the distribution and evolutionary history of all Asteraceae species. The researchers found that an unexpectedly high number of evolutionary events – known as “speciation” where a new species of plants evolves from a common ancestor – occurred in the aster family within relatively short time periods on many islands worldwide. The results were published in Nature Communications.

Eine bahnbrechende Technik, TF-High-Evolutionary (TF-HighEvo), ermöglicht eine groß angelegte Bewertung von de-novo-Mutationen in mehrzelligen Organismen
Diese Methode, die in Zusammenarbeit mit Forschenden des Europäischen Laboratoriums für Molekularbiologie (EMBL) und des Friedrich-Miescher-Labors der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft entwickelt und in der Zeitschrift Molecular Biology and Evolution veröffentlicht wurde, bietet neue Einblicke in die evolutionäre Dynamik von Genregulationsnetzwerken und ihre Rolle bei der Gestaltung der Vielfalt des Lebens.

Researchers from the RIKEN Center for Computational Science (Japan) and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology (Germany) have published new findings on how social norms evolve over time. They simulated how norms promote different social behavior, and how the norms themselves come and go. Because of the enormous number of possible norms, these simulations were run on RIKEN’s Fugaku, one of the fastest supercomputers worldwide.

Who we choose as a partner depends in part on who we find attractive on the outside. Scientists have long wondered whether potential partners can also sense a woman’s fertility, for example through subtle changes in her body odour. Researchers from Leipzig University, the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and the University of Göttingen have now turned their attention to this question. In a new study, they not only looked at how men rated women’s odours on different days, but also, for the first time, carried out a chemical analysis of the odour samples. Using both methods, they found no evidence that women smell more attractive to men on their fertile days.

Evolutionary biologists from the universities of Heidelberg, Nottingham, and Prague studied spoonworts to determine what influence genome duplication has on the adaptive potential of plants. The results show that polyploids – species with more than two sets of chromosomes – can have an accumulation of structural mutations with signals for a possible local adaptation, enabling them to occupy ecological niches time and time again.

Using the example of the freshwater polyp Hydra, a CRC 1182 research team shows how even creatures with very simple nervous systems can regulate the complex coordination of satiety and related behaviours

Researchers from Dresden University of Technology (TUD) and the University of Sheffield have discovered that male fertility can adapt to microbes. These finding shed new light on the importance of sperm ecology and might have significant implications for evolutionary biology and medical research, particularly in understanding and treating infertility. The work has now been published in the journal “Evolution Letters”.

Why is the mortality rate among newborns very high, but decreases with increasing maturity? This question has long occupied scientists. Now, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Plön have developed a remarkable hypothesis further: altruism could be a crucial factor.

At its meeting on 19 March 2024, the Senate of the Leibniz Association made major decisions in various cross-institute funding formats: the Leibniz Institute DSMZ-German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures GmbH in Braunschweig, Germany, is leading one of seven new ScienceCampi. „The Leibniz Association and the state of Lower Saxony are funding the establishment of the Leibniz ScienceCampus EcoPath (Evolutionary Ecology of Zoonotic Pathogens during Agricultural Transformations), which has a total volume of 3.8 million euros, under the leadership of the Leibniz Institute DSMZ.“, announced the Scientific Director of the Institute, Professor Dr Jörg Overmann, today.

Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen broke new ground by demonstrating that an HMG-box gene in brown algae is crucial for determining male sex. This breakthrough significantly expands our understanding of sex-determination mechanisms in eukaryotic organisms. Until now, master sex-determination genes had been identified in only a select number of vertebrates and plants. Published in Science, this study illuminates the evolutionary parallels in developmental pathways between animals and seaweeds, despite their millions of years of independent evolution. It highlights the use of a shared genetic ‘toolkit’ across lineages and explores distant evolutionary convergences.

Der Senat der Leibniz-Gemeinschaft hat in seiner Sitzung am 19. März 2024 weitreichende Entscheidungen in verschiedenen institutsübergreifenden Förderformaten getroffen: das Leibniz-Institut DSMZ-Deutsche Sammlung von Mikroorganismen und Zellkulturen in Braunschweig führt einen von sieben neuen WissenschaftsCampi. „Die Leibniz-Gemeinschaft und das Land Niedersachsen finanzieren den Aufbau des Leibniz-WissenschaftsCampus EcoPath (Evolutionary Ecology of Zoonotic Pathogens during Agricultural Transformations), der ein Gesamtvolumen von 3,8 Millionen Euro hat, unter Leitung des Leibniz-Instituts DSMZ.“, teilt heute der Wissenschaftliche Direktor des Instituts Professor Dr. Jörg Overmann mit.

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Plön, within the Department of Theoretical Biology, characterized a recently discovered dynamical regime of microbial communities and used it to explain empirical patterns of marine plankton. There, strong and diverse interactions, combined with weak dispersal, fuel a continuous turnover of the small set of very abundant species, such that success is ephemeral and every species is equivalent in alternating between rarity and dominance.

Transposable elements are mobile genetic elements that can relocate within the genome and disrupt the normal function of genes, but are at the same time a source of evolutionary diversity. The lab of Tugce Aktas at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics has identified a novel pathway that keeps the activity of transposons in somatic cells in check after they have been transcribed. Their findings have now been published in Nature. The work is a collaboration with the labs of Zachary D. Smith (Yale Stem Cell Center, USA) and Franz-Josef Müller (Universitätsklinikum Schleswig-Holstein, Germany)

26.01.2024/Ghent/Groningen/Kiel/Naples. Seagrasses provide the foundation of one of the most highly biodiverse, yet vulnerable, coastal marine ecosystems globally. They arose in three independent lineages from their freshwater ancestors some 100 million years ago and are the only fully submerged, marine flowering plants. Moving to such a radically different environment is a rare evolutionary event and definitely not easy. How did they do it? New reference quality genomes provide important clues with relevance to their conservation and biotechnological application.

They are tiny, enormously diverse, and widespread in the soil: soil invertebrates such as springtails, horn mites, millipedes, and nematodes. These animals, which are often only visible under a microscope, fulfil important tasks in the soil ecosystem. This is why they are increasingly becoming the focus of official measures to preserve biodiversity in the soil. With the „MetaInvert“ project, scientists are providing extensive genomic data on 232 species of these previously little-studied organisms. The information contributes significantly to the identification and knowledge of community composition and function and the discovery of evolutionary adaptations to environmental conditions.

New genetic data show that humans and sharks share bitter taste receptors, even though their evolutionary pathways separated nearly 500 million years ago / Published in ‘PNAS’

Evolutionary information can support the design of targeted vaccines / publication in the scientific journal ‘Cell’

Snakebites cause around 100,000 deaths worldwide every year. Researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have investigated how the toxin emerged between 50 and 120 million years ago through the modification of a gene that also occurs in mammals and other reptiles. The results could help with the development of better snakebite treatments and lead to new knowledge for the treatment of illnesses such as type 2 diabetes and hypertension.

Some of nature’s mysteries have kept scientists busy for decades – for example, the processes which drive evolution. The question of whether certain differences between and within species are caused by natural selection or by chance processes divides evolutionary biologists even today. An international team of researchers has teased apart a scientific debate concerning the evolutionary theories of Darwin and the Japanese geneticist Kimura. Their conclusion: the debate is unnecessarily convoluted by the co-existence of different interpretations.

When infants are involved in agonistic conflicts, male crested macaques (Macaca nigra) are more likely to respond to screams from their own offspring. This is the conclusion of a recent study led by behavioural ecologist Professor Anja Widdig from Leipzig University and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig as part of the Macaca Nigra Project (MNP). The researchers studied the behaviour of crested macaques in the Tangkoko Nature Reserve on Sulawesi, Indonesia, over a 24-month period (2008 to 2010).

Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment at the University of Tübingen explores skeletal features as an alternative to DNA analysis

Multidrug-resistant bacterial infections are one of the most pressing issues in medicine, a situation that is only expected to worsen in the coming decades. The problem is being addressed not only by developing new antibiotics but also by studying antibiotic alternatives, such as phages. Among them is the Microbial Molecular Evolution Research Group at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Plön.

– Joint press release by Kiel University and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Plön –

A research team from Kiel University and MPI-EB identifies genetic factors that were acquired by the pathogen Yersinia pestis during its recent evolution and contribute to our understanding of the emergence of the modern plague pandemic in the 19th century

Understanding the origins and preservation of biodiversity is crucial as human impact continues to threaten our planet’s rich variety of life. Often overlooked, narrow-ranged and evolutionary unique species play a vital role in shaping biodiversity. Their concentrated presence, quantified as phylogenetic endemism, reveals important centers of biogeographic and evolutionary history. A new study led by a team of international researchers at the University of Göttingen has now uncovered global patterns and factors influencing phylogenetic endemism in seed plants, providing invaluable insights for conservation efforts worldwide. The findings were published in PNAS.