What prevents generalists from displacing specialists, despite obvious competitive
advantages of utilizing a broad niche? The classic genetic explanation is antagonistic …

Viruses are the most abundant biological entities on Earth, and yet, they have not received
enough consideration in astrobiology. Viruses are also extraordinarily diverse, which is …

A major challenge in evolutionary biology is explaining how populations navigate rugged
fitness landscapes without getting trapped on local optima. One idea illustrated by adaptive …

A lack of tractable experimental systems in which to test hypotheses about the ecological
and evolutionary drivers of disease spillover and emergence has limited our understanding …

Orthotospoviruses are plant-infecting members of the family Tospoviridae (order
Bunyavirales), have a broad host range and are vectored by polyphagous thrips in a …

Bacteriophages (phages) are viruses specific to bacteria that target them with great
efficiency and specificity. Phages were first studied for their antibacterial potential in the …

Arms race dynamics are a common outcome of host–parasite coevolution. While they can
theoretically be maintained indefinitely, realistic arms races are expected to be finite. Once …

Predicting the evolution of virus host range has proven to be extremely difficult, in part
because of the sheer diversity of viruses, each with unique biology and ecological …

Experimental evolution studies, in which biological populations are evolved in a specific
environment over time, can address questions about the nature of spontaneous mutations …

Natural selection operating on the genomes of viral pathogens in different host species
strongly contributes to adaptation facilitating host colonization. Here, we analyse, quantify …