Timothy B. Sackton

TL;DR: These genome sequences augment the formidable genetic tools that have made Drosophila melanogaster a pre-eminent model for animal genetics, and will further catalyse fundamental research on mechanisms of development, cell biology, genetics, disease, neurobiology, behaviour, physiology and evolution.

TL;DR: This work compares 13,731 annotated genes from humans to their chimpanzee orthologs to identify genes that show evidence of positive selection, and hypothesizes that positive selection in some of these genes may be driven by genomic conflict due to apoptosis during spermatogenesis.

TL;DR: Key findings include the identification of a functional DNA methylation tool kit; hymenopteran-specific genes including diverse venoms; lateral gene transfers among Pox viruses, Wolbachia, and Nasonia; and the rapid evolution of genes involved in nuclear-mitochondrial interactions that are implicated in speciation.

TL;DR: Using codon-based likelihood methods, it is shown that immune-system genes, and especially those encoding recognition proteins, evolve under positive darwinian selection, suggesting that molecular interactions between hosts and pathogens may drive adaptive evolution in the Drosophila immune system.

TL;DR: It is confirmed the importance of translational selection in shaping protein evolution in Drosophila and show that factors such as tissue bias in expression, gene essentiality, intron number, and recombination rate also contribute to evolutionary rate variation among proteins.