The study of fitness landscapes, which aims at mapping genotypes to fitness, is receiving ever-increasing attention. Novel experimental approaches combined with next-generation sequencing (NGS) methods enable accurate and extensive studies of the fitness effects of mutations, allowing us to test theoretical predictions and improve our understanding of the shape of the true underlying fitness landscape and its implications for the predictability and repeatability of evolution. Here, we present a uniquely large multiallelic fitness landscape comprising...

Restoration of touch after hand amputation is a desirable feature of ideal prostheses. Here, we show that texture discrimination can be artificially provided in human subjects by implementing a neuromorphic real-time mechano-neuro-transduction (MNT), which emulates to some extent the firing dynamics of SA1 cutaneous afferents. The MNT process was used to modulate the temporal pattern of electrical spikes delivered to the human median nerve via percutaneous microstimulation in four intact subjects and via implanted intrafascicular...

Explanations for the evolution of delayed maturity usually invoke trade-offs mediated by growth, but processes of reproductive maturation often continue long after growth has ceased. Here, we tested whether sexual selection shapes the rate of post-eclosion maturation in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. We found that populations maintained for more than 100 generations under a short generation time and polygamous mating system evolved faster post-eclosion maturation and faster egg-to-adult development of males, when compared to...

In scleractinian reef-building corals, patterns of cell self-renewal, migration and death remain virtually unknown, limiting our understanding of cellular mechanisms underlying initiation of calcification, and ontogenesis of the endosymbiotic dinoflagellate relationship. In this study we pulse-labeled the coral Stylophora pistillata for 24 h with BrdU at four life stages (planula, early metamorphosis, primary polyp, and adult colony) to investigate coral and endosymbiont cell proliferation during development, while simultaneously recording TUNEL-positive, i.e. apoptotic, nuclei. In the...