Background The phylogeny of Cnidaria has been a source of debate for decades, during
which nearly all-possible relationships among the major lineages have been proposed. The …

Cheating is a focal concept in the study of mutualism, with the majority of researchers
considering cheating to be both prevalent and highly damaging. However, current definitions of …

Microbes have been critical drivers of evolutionary innovation in animals. To understand the
processes that influence the origin of specialized symbiotic organs, we report the …

The opsin gene family encodes key proteins animals use to sense light and has expanded
dramatically as it originated early in animal evolution. Understanding the origins of opsin …

Symbiotic microbial communities of sponges serve critical functions that have shaped the
evolution of reef ecosystems since their origins. Symbiont abundance varies tremendously …

Coleoid cephalopod molluscs comprise squid, cuttlefish and octopuses, and represent nearly
the entire diversity of modern cephalopods. Sophisticated adaptations such as the use of …

Despite contingency in life’s history, the similarity of evolutionarily convergent traits may
represent predictable solutions to common conditions. However, the extent to which overall …

Background The importance of symbiosis has long been recognized on coral reefs, where
the photosynthetic dinoflagellates of corals (Symbiodiniaceae) are the primary symbiont. …

Background Tools for high throughput sequencing and de novo assembly make the analysis
of transcriptomes (ie the suite of genes expressed in a tissue) feasible for almost any …

Organisms may respond to changing environments through phenotypic plasticity or adaptive
evolution. These two processes are not mutually exclusive and may either dampen or …