Satellite DNA consists of abundant tandem repeats that play important roles in cellular
processes, including chromosome segregation, genome organization and chromosome end …

Speciation is a fundamental evolutionary process, the knowledge of which is crucial for
understanding the origins of biodiversity. Genomic approaches are an increasingly …

A latitudinal gradient in biodiversity has existed since before the time of the dinosaurs, yet
how and why this gradient arose remains unresolved. Here we review two major hypotheses …

Courtship rituals serve to reinforce reproductive barriers between closely related species.
Drosophila melanogaster and Drosophila simulans exhibit reproductive isolation, owing in …

Hybrids such as maize (Zea mays) or domestic dog (Canis lupus familiaris) grow bigger and
stronger than their parents. This is also true for allopolyploids such as wheat (Triticum spp.) …

Transposons populate the landscape of all eukaryotic genomes. Often considered purely
genomic parasites, transposons can also benefit their hosts, playing roles in gene regulation …

Species originate frequently by natural selection. A general mechanism by which this occurs
is ecological speciation, defined as the evolution of reproductive isolation between …

An important tenet of evolutionary developmental biology (“evo devo”) is that adaptive
mutations affecting morphology are more likely to occur in the cis-regulatory regions than in …

All plant and animal species arise by speciation—the evolutionary splitting of one species
into two reproductively incompatible species. But until recently our understanding of the …

Incompatibilities in interspecific hybrids, such as sterility and lethality, are widely observed
causes of reproductive isolation and thus contribute to speciation. Because hybrid …