Nature Protocols, Published online: 28 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41596-025-01301-1This Tutorial integrates state-of-the-art tools into a streamlined workflow to create high-quality annotations for animal genomes, assigning gene symbols and annotating repeat regions for both protein-coding and non-coding RNA genes, before assessing annotation quality.

Nature Reviews Genetics, Published online: 16 February 2026; doi:10.1038/s41576-026-00935-5Gene duplication is a key evolutionary mechanism, as initially redundant paralogues diverge over time. The authors review how adaptive and non-adaptive forces influence the evolutionary fates of gene duplicates, highlighting the importance of function–fitness relationships and gene expression dynamics.

The potential role of haplodiploid sex determination in promoting the evolution of altruism and eusociality has been the subject of intense debate ...

Nature Reviews Genetics, Published online: 02 February 2026; doi:10.1038/s41576-026-00933-7Convergent phenotypic evolution, the independent acquisition of similar or nearly identical traits in multiple species, is widespread. Allard and Kumar explore the spectrum of molecular convergence in multicellular organisms, evaluate computational and artificial intelligence-based methods for detecting adaptive genetic convergence, and highlight how comparative genomics of convergent phenotypes informs complex trait evolution and human health.

Nature Reviews Genetics, Published online: 28 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41576-025-00929-9De novo gene evolution entails the birth of new genes from previously non-coding DNA. In this Review, Bornberg-Bauer and Eicholt overview how protein-coding de novo genes are identified, the mechanistic and evolutionary processes underlying their emergence and evolution, and the patterns in their encoded protein structures.

For almost two decades, scientists have debated whether sponges or comb jellies are the first animal lineage. Now some are calling for a more harmonious approach.

Cell Research - Structural genomics sheds light on protein functions and remote homologs across the insect tree of life

Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) has greatly expanded researchers' ability to study structural variants (SVs), that is, the variation in the presence, number, orientation or position of a DNA sequence. ....

Nature Reviews Biodiversity, Published online: 16 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s44358-025-00125-xThe question of how to define a species has a long history and continued relevance for ongoing biological and conservation research. This Review describes the history of the species problem, and explores how novel evolutionary pressures and constraints of the Anthropocene might be complicating species definitions even further.

It is widely accepted that we face a biodiversity crisis due to human activities, and we need active conservation interventions to address it. Natural history museums have recently made public commitments to play a more active role in helping to address the biodiversity crisis. What role might they play in helping nature recover? To answer this question, we recognise a hierarchy of conservation interventions (species, community and whole systems) and illustrate the role that museums can play in these. We also discuss how museums enable people to engage with conservation science. While barriers remain, there are significant opportunities for the conservation community to better integrate collections into their research. We need museums to help enable this to happen.

The authors synthesize bee assemblage data from 681 crop fields across three continents, finding that local pesticide hazards and decreasing adjacent semi-natural habitats both negatively affected wil...