Evolution articles from across Nature Portfolio

The water-transport system of tropical giants called dipterocarps has evolved to defy the effects of gravity and resist water stress.

Transplantation experiments in evolutionarily distinct animal groups reveal conserved mechanisms underlying tissue organization during development.

Buchnera bacteria that live in the cells of insects known as aphids secrete a protein called SyeA, which is crucial for colonization. The structural similarity of SyeA to proteins secreted by disease-causing bacteria indicates that the beneficial symbiotic relationship between Buchnera and aphids had pathogenic origins.

A well-preserved fossil snake from the Late Cretaceous of Brazil shows early ecological and brain shape disparity in the group.

Whole-genome sequencing analysis of tumour and matched non-tumour host tissues of the brown bullhead catfish reveals a type of naturally occurring transmissible cancer.

Experimentally replaying tumour evolution in divergent mouse strains reveals the importance of interactions between genetic ancestry and acquired cancer-driving mutations in shaping the earliest stages of cancer development.

Japan deserves more attention than it has so far received in Western narratives about the expansion of humans across Asia. It has over 10,000 Palaeolithic sites, many of which are well-dated. Japan provides excellent examples of Pleistocene sea-faring and long-distance Palaeolithic exchange networks. Okinawa in the Ryukyu Islands may provide one of the earliest examples of humans deliberately trans-locating an animal to a new environment. Japan may also have been a starting point for the colonisation of the Americas.

All organisms defend against viral infections through active immunity mechanisms that clear the virus or population-level mechanisms that cause regulated cell death. Recent research increasingly shows that, across all domains of life, these two types of defence systems are coupled such that regulated cell death mechanisms safeguard or back up active immunity.

The mechanism behind these strange mammals' extreme social structure has been a long-standing puzzle.

The water-transport system of tropical giants called dipterocarps has evolved to defy the effects of gravity and resist water stress.

Transplantation experiments in evolutionarily distinct animal groups reveal conserved mechanisms underlying tissue organization during development.