Mikhail S. Gelfand1,2
1Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, Moscow, Russia
2A.A.Kharkevich Institute for Information Transmission Problems, Moscow, Russia
mikhail.gelfand [at] gmail.com
Abstract
The textbooks are written based on Escherichia coli, Arabidopsis thaliana, Saccraromyces cerevisiae, Drosophila melanogaster, and mouse biology, with some contribution of less popular model species. However, interesting biology and evolution also happens elsewhere, and I’ll tell three such stories that have an evolutionary aspect in common: positive selection on mRNA editing in octopuses and their relatives, tetraplet codons in some ciliate infusoria and their seemingly neutral evolution, and (time permitting) recapitulation of the embryonic transcriptional program in insect pupae.
Keywords: comparative genomics, molecular evolution, coleoids, mRNA editing, Euplotes, frameshfting, genetic code, holometabolous insects, transcriptome, pupal development
Acknowledgement: This is joint work with Mikhail Moldovan, Sofya Gaydukova, Aleksandra Ozerova, Pavel Baranov partially supported by the RSF under grant 23-14-00136 and the RFBR under grant 20-54-14005.
