A comprehensive study spanning all recent penguin taxa was undertaken to understand 60 million years of penguin evolutionary history, published in Nature communications on 19th July as a highlight story. Researchers identified key geological events and a suite of important genes that shaped penguin evolution, diversification and adaptation within the framework of a genome-scale, fossil-inclusive phylogeny. This study revolutionizes our understanding of penguins, which have evolved a suite of morphological, physiological and behavioral traits and sheds a new light on the evolutionary pathways that allowed some land animals to transition back into aquatic environments, particularly extremely cold ones such as the seas around Antarctica.

Mustura yangi, new species, is described from the upper Mali Hka River drainage, Irrawaddy River basin, in Putao District, Kachin State, Myanmar. It is distinguished from all other species of Mustura by a unique combination of the following characters: 6-7 dark grey bars on flank, often dissociated into a blotch and a saddle;numerous and irregular spots on the head; extremely dorsally situated eyes; well formed axillary pelvic lobe, prominent air-bladder with a minute posterior chamber in abdominal cavity; males with suborbital flap; lateral line complete; a slender caudal peduncle, its depth 1.6-1.9 times in its length, 8.6-10.1% SL; caudal fin forked;largest recorded size 56.0 mm SL.

Venomous animals utilize venom glands to secrete and store powerful toxins for intraspecific and/or interspecific antagonistic interactions, implying that tissue-specific resistance is essential for venom glands to anatomically separate toxins from other tissues. Here, we show the mechanism of tissue-specific resistance in centipedes (Scolopendra subspinipes mutilans), where the splice variant of the receptor repels its own toxin. Unlike the well-known resistance mechanism by mutation in a given exon, we found that the KCNQ1 channel is highly expressed in the venom gland as a unique splice variant in which the pore domain and transmembrane domain six, partially encoded by exon 6 (rather than 7 as found in other tissues), contain eleven mutated residues.

Southern East Asia is the dispersal center regarding the prehistoric settlement and migrations of modern humans in Asia-Pacific regions. However, the settlement pattern and population structure of paleolithic humans in this region remain elusive, and ancient DNA can provide direct information. Here, we sequenced the genome of a Late Pleistocene hominin (MZR), dated ~14.0 thousand years ago from Red Deer Cave located in Southwest China, which was previously reported possessing mosaic features of modern and archaic hominins. MZR is the first Late Pleistocene genome from southern East Asia. Our results indicate that MZR is a modern human who represents an early diversified lineage in East Asia.

Southern East Asia is the dispersal center regarding the prehistoric settlement and migrations of modern humans in Asia-Pacific regions. However, the settlement pattern and population structure of paleolithic humans in this region remain elusive, and ancient DNA can provide direct information. Here, we sequenced the genome of a Late Pleistocene hominin (MZR), dated ~14.0 thousand years ago from Red Deer Cave located in Southwest China, which was previously reported possessing mosaic features of modern and archaic hominins.

Southern East Asia is the dispersal center regarding the prehistoric settlement and migrations of modern humans in Asia-Pacific regions. However, the settlement pattern and population structure of paleolithic humans in this region remain elusive, and ancient DNA can provide direct information. Here, we sequenced the genome of a Late Pleistocene hominin (MZR), dated ~14.0 thousand years ago from Red Deer Cave located in Southwest China, which was previously reported possessing mosaic features of modern and archaic hominins. MZR is the first Late Pleistocene genome from southern East Asia. Our results indicate that MZR is a modern human who represents an early diversified lineage in East Asia.

A major turning point in the evolution of animals was the emergence of social organization, which greatly improved the adaptability of animals. Today, we can still find a continuous series of patterns of social organization from simple to complex in different species. Among them, human society and social insects such as bees and ants are attracting the most attention.

Single cell sequencing has been widely employed to construct the developmental cell atlas of several representative species of vertebrates (human, mouse, zebrafish and frog) and tunicate (sea squirts). Here, we performe single-nucleus RNA sequencing (snRNA-seq) and single-cell assay for transposase accessible chromatin sequencing (scATAC-seq) for different stages of amphioxus (covering embryogenesis and adult tissues). With the datasets generated, we constructed the developmental tree for amphioxus cell fate commitment and lineage specification, and characterize the underlying key regulators and genetic regulatory networks. The data are publicly available on an online platform, AmphioxusAtlas, at https://lifeomics.shinyapps.io/shinyappmulti/.

Chinese scientists reported high quality genomes of 11 swallowtail butterfly species covering the representatives of all tribes in the subfamilies Papilioinae and Parnassiinae. They explained the genetic molecular mechanism of papiliochromes, a unique class of pigments in swallowtail butterfly which contribute to their color diversity and various biological functions such as predator avoidance and mate preference. These swallowtail butterfly genomes will allow us to explore the genetic basis of butterfly diversity, and also will provide important data resource for conservation of butterflies

Adaptation to reduced energy production during aging is a fundamental issue for maintaining healthspan or prolonging life span. Currently, however, the underlying mechanism in long-lived people remains poorly understood. Here, we analyzed transcriptomes of 185 long-lived individuals (LLIs) and 86 spouses of their children from two independent Chinese longevity cohorts and found that the ribosome pathway was significantly down-regulated in LLIs. We found that the down-regulation is likely controlled by ETS1 (ETS proto-oncogene 1), a transcription factor down-regulated in LLIs and positively coexpressed with most ribosomal protein genes (RPGs). Functional assays showed that ETS1 can bind to RPG promoters, while ETS1 knockdown reduces RPG expression and alleviates cellular senescence in human dermal fibroblast (HDF) and embryonic lung fibroblast (IMR-90) cells.