A banded newt to brighten your day (Michael Fahrbach)

Gemma Palomar and Wieław Babik lead a study, just out in Genome Biology and Evolution, that focuses on the evolution of the immune system in salamanders. Antigen processing genes and major histocompatibility complex class I molecules are considered to co-evolve in jawed vertebrates. We show that, at least in salamanders, the data do not fit all the predictions of this hypothesis.

Reference: Palomar, G., Dudek, K., Wielstra, B., Jockusch, E.L., Vinkler, M., Arntzen, J.W., Ficetola, G.F., Matsunami, M., Waldman, B., Těšický, M., Zieliński, P., Babik, W. (2021). Molecular evolution of antigen processing genes casts doubts on their coevolution with MHC class I genes in salamanders. Genome Biology and Evolution 13(2): evaa259.