Mona et al. report a complex supergene system in the ant Myrmecina graminicola characterized by three alleles determining both the number of queens in a colony (monogyne vs. polygyne) and the presence...

Latest Ukraine peace plan presented by the US would be a capitulation to Moscow

Population genetics simulations and analysis of experimental datasets in yeast, Drosophila and E. coli show that beneficial mutations are abundant but transient, as they become deleterious after envir...

A Russian drone and missile attack on Ukraine's western city of Ternopil has killed at least 25 people, including three children.

Abstract Mutualistic interactions between plants and pollinators play an important role in supporting biodiversity and ecosystem stability. However, these interactions are increasingly threatened by c...

Animal behavior is often viewed as stemming from predictable genetic and environmental factors. However, despite our best attempts to control genetic and environmental influences on behavior, variation among individuals still persists: what we call ‘stochastic individuality’. Increasing research suggests that this might be more than just measurement error, and might instead be rich in biological insights. In this review we examine what is known about stochastic individuality, including potential biological mechanisms and its potential adaptive value, and we provide guidance for how to quantify and test outstanding questions about its role in driving patterns of behavioral diversity. Incorporating stochasticity may be a key missing component in mapping the links from genotype to phenotype and predicting the interplay between phenotype and fitness.

Nature Reviews Genetics, Published online: 04 November 2025; doi:10.1038/s41576-025-00903-5Kay et al. review evidence that parental care, and more complex social behaviour based on parental care, evolved in multiple species through the repeated co-option of members of a pleiotropic molecular network regulating the ancestral processes of feeding, growth and reproduction.

Development requires the coordinated action of many genes across space and time, yet numerous species can develop discrete, alternate phenotypes. S...

The interplay between speciation and extinction rates shapes clade diversity dynamics. Using a novel phylogenetic model that includes living and fossil lineages, the authors estimate speciation and ex...

Bumble bees (Bombus) are prominent keystone pollinators globally and thus serve as model taxa for numerous facets of biology from social evolution to foraging economics. Many of the ∼265 species are i...

Millennia after the advent of pesticides and nearly eight decades into the widespread use of synthetic compounds, the role of such chemicals in modern society remains pivotal, despite persistent conce...

A comprehensive single-nucleus RNA-seq atlas of >367,000 nuclei from male and female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes reveals sexual dimorphism in sensory systems and brain cell types and widespread co-expres...

Analysis of the longest-lived mammal, the bowhead whale, reveals an improved ability to repair DNA breaks, mediated by high levels of cold-inducible RNA-binding protein.  &nbs...

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said the overnight assault showed that Russia “clearly doesn’t feel enough pressure to stop prolonging the war.”