This Week in Evolution

Rapid evolution of disease resistance is accompanied by functional changes in gene expression in a wild bird "following an experimental infection... finches from eastern US populations with a 12-y history of exposure to MG [a pathogen] harbored 33% lower MG... than finches from western US populations with no prior exposure"

Specificity in the symbiotic association between fungus-growing ants and protective Pseudonocardia "the ant-derived Pseudonocardia [bacteria apparently used to control pest fungi] inhibit Escovopsis [the pest fungus] more strongly than they inhibit other fungi, and are better at inhibiting this pathogen than most environmental Pseudonocardia strains tested"
See this earlier post for background on how fungus-growing ants control pests.

Rapid diversification and not clade age explains high diversity in neotropical Adelpha [Greater diversity of butterflies in the tropics may be mainly because they've evolved faster there, not just because missing the Ice Age gave them longer to evolve.]

Nocturnality in Dinosaurs Inferred from Scleral Ring and Orbit Morphology "flyers were predominantly diurnal; terrestrial predators, at least partially, nocturnal"

Evolution of adaptive phenotypic variation patterns by direct selection for evolvability "model... results predict that selection on rQTL [genes affecting correlations among traits] leads to higher correlations among traits... a mechanism by which natural selection can directly enhance the evolvability of complex organisms along lines of adaptive change."

Sex, sex chromosomes and gene expression "the X chromosome spends two-thirds of the time in females, autosomes one-half and Y none at all, leading to differing selective pressures on X-linked genes between the sexes"

Niche specialization of reef-building corals in the mesophotic zone: metabolic trade-offs between divergent Symbiodinium types OPEN ACCESS