Somatic mutations accumulate with age and can cause cell death, but their quantitative contribution to limiting human lifespan remains unclear. We developed an incremental modeling framework that prog...

Nature - Technical advances allow researchers to trace the genetic changes that occur over time.

Seahorses have a unique sex role reversal with male pregnancy involving the brood pouch, an evolutionarily novel organ. This study uses single-cell genomics and in vivo experiments to reveal the cellular basis and molecular mechanism of pouch development and diversity in seahorses.

The gut microbiome can influence brain activity and complex behaviours. In this Review, Griffiths et al. discuss microbiome-associated effects on social behaviour in laboratory model organisms, free-living animals and humans, and consider potential mechanistic pathways.

How the brain gets wired up matters. Consider the neurons involved in the sense of smell. Hook them up wrong, and suddenly turpentine might smell like a lovely chianti.

Sexual signals can reduce survival, constraining their evolutionary elaboration. However, it is unclear whether these signals, once evolved, similarly impact the evolution of naturally selected adaptations. We argue that this dynamic could be important for protective colouration, an extensively studied suite of adaptations that can also be under sexual selection. Sexual signals sometimes coevolve positively with conspicuous warning colouration, promoting synergistic, dual-function associations. However, when coupled through shared structures or behaviours, sexual traits might constrain the evolution of concealment strategies, resulting in suboptimal camouflage. We suggest hypotheses, approaches, and study systems to distinguish these opposing causal roles of sexual selection in shaping naturally selected adaptations such as protective colouration.

Host body temperature can define a virus’s replicative profile—influenza A viruses (IAVs) adapted to 40° to 42°C in birds are less temperature sensitive in vitro compared with human isolates adapted t...

Biodiversity is decreasing at an alarming rate, and there is an urgent need to understand the demographic drivers behind population declines. Therefore, it is important to study the different stages o...

Isogenic Drosophila melanogaster vary greatly in longevity. Fractionation of an isogenic cohort based on climbing behavior early in life stratifies variation in the metabolome, longevity and mortalit...

Specialized appendage responds to female sex hormones, allowing males to find sex organs in the dark

Specialized hair cells pick electric currents induced by magnetism

Unusually obstructive plumage compromises the vision of two types of pheasants—a first in birds

Calcium imaging of taste neurons and the ventral brain provides insight into evolutionary divergence of food choice in Drosophila species, supporting a role of sensorimotor processing in addition to p...

Abstract. Why has sperm gigantism evolved, and how do subcellular allocations scale with size? Schalkowski & Cutter (2025) addressed these questions wi

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...

As the brain ages, cells in the central nervous system experience metabolic dysfunction and increased oxidative damage.