Nels and Vincent discuss the origins of two modern day agriculturally important plants: a role for two different wild teosintes in making modern maize, and the origin and evolution of the triploid cultivated banana genome.
Nels and Vincent review a study of the dogs of Chernobyl which reveals that genetically distinct populations with different amounts of western breed contributions to their genomes, the first step in assessing the effects of exposure to long-term ionizing radiation.
Nels and Vincent review the contribution of multiple Denisovan lineages to the modern Papuan genome.
Nels visits Vincent in the MicrobeTV studio in New York and talks about how key genes of the Homo sapiens innate immune response were acquired from Neanderthals.
Nels and Vincent continue with an emerging sub-theme of TWiEVO – organisms with wings – as they reveal enhancer shuffling as a mechanism for producing diverse butterfly wing patterns.