OOIR: Observatory of International Research

Papers

(The TQCC of Journal of Molecular Evolution is 5. The table below lists those papers that are above that threshold based on CrossRef citation counts [max. 250 papers]. The publications cover those that have been published in the past four years, i.e., from 2021-12-01 to 2025-12-01.)

Article	Citations
Correction: Stochastic Epigenetic Modification and Evolution of Sex Determination in Vertebrates	50
Molecular Evolution of Malacostracan Short Wavelength Sensitive Opsins	35
Correction: Analysis of Cancer-Resisting Evolutionary Adaptations in Wild Animals and Applications for Human Oncology	34
Prebiotic N-(2-Aminoethyl)-Glycine (AEG)-Assisted Synthesis of Proto-RNA?	32
Modified Metabolism and Response to UV Radiation: Gene Expression Variations Along an Elevational Gradient in the Asiatic Toad (Bufo gargarizans)	28
Extant Sequence Reconstruction: The Accuracy of Ancestral Sequence Reconstructions Evaluated by Extant Sequence Cross-Validation	23
Molecular Evolution of the Green-Sensitive Opsins (RH2) in Sulawesi Oryzias Species with a Single Origin	22
Learning from the Codon Table: Convergent Recoding Provides Novel Understanding on the Evolution of A-to-I RNA Editing	20
Scaling up Functional Analyses of the G Protein-Coupled Receptor Rhodopsin	19
Embracing Complexity: Yeast Evolution Experiments Featuring Standing Genetic Variation	17
Unusual Evolution of Cephalopod Tryptophan Indole-Lyases	16
Screening for Viruses in Pallas’s Long-Tongued Bats (Glossophaga soricina) in Brazil	15
An Ultimate Question for Functional A-to-I mRNA Editing: Why Not a Genomic G?	15
Overlaps Between CDS Regions of Protein-Coding Genes in the Human Genome: A Case Study on the NR1D1-THRA Gene Pair	13
The Ancient Origins of Death Domains Support the ‘Original Sin’ Hypothesis for the Evolution of Programmed Cell Death	13
Odorant-Binding and Chemosensory Proteins in Fig Wasps: Evolutionary Insights From Comparative Studies	13
Evaluating Pretrained Protein Language Model Embeddings as Proxies for Functional Similarity	13
Understanding Functional Evolution in Orthologs and Paralogs	12
MEGA 12.1: Cross-Platform Release for macOS and Linux Operating Systems	12
Organophosphorus Compound Formation Through the Oxidation of Reduced Oxidation State Phosphorus Compounds on the Hadean Earth	12
Post-Subfunctionalization Functions of HIF-1αA and HIF-1αB in Cyprinid Fish: Fine-Tuning Mitophagy and Apoptosis Regulation Under Hypoxic Stress	12
Phylogenetic and Evolutionary Analysis of Plant Small RNA 2′-O-Methyltransferase (HEN1) Protein Family	11
On the Nature of the Last Common Ancestor: A Story from its Translation Machinery	11
Evolution of Transcript Abundance is Influenced by Indels in Protein Low Complexity Regions	11
dN/dS-H, a New Test to Distinguish Different Selection Modes in Protein Evolution and Cancer Evolution	11

Molecular Footprints on Osmoregulation-Related Genes Associated with Freshwater Colonization by Cetaceans and Sirenians	10
Systematic Detection of Alternative Open Reading Frames (altORFs) in Cancer Driver Genes	10
On Protein Loops, Prior Molecular States and Common Ancestors of Life	10
A Closer Look at Non-random Patterns Within Chemistry Space for a Smaller, Earlier Amino Acid Alphabet	9
Biochemical Property Based Positional Matrix: A New Approach Towards Genome Sequence Comparison	9
Possible Acquisition and Molecular Evolution of vpu Genes Inferred from Comprehensive Sequence Analysis of Human and Simian Immunodeficiency Viruses	9
The Last Universal Common Ancestor of Ribosome-Encoding Organisms: Portrait of LUCA	8
Reconstructing Evolutionary Histories with Hierarchical Orthologous Groups	8
Conservation of Protein Kinase A Substrates in the Cnidarian Coral Spermatozoa Among Animals and Their Molecular Evolution	8
Understanding the Origin and Evolution of Tea (Camellia sinensis [L.]): Genomic Advances in Tea	8
Functional Diversity of the Lepidopteran ATP-Binding Cassette Transporters	8
Cystathionine Gamma-Lyase: A Potential Longevity Gene Under Selection?	8
Reduction of Tooth Replacement Disproportionately Affects the Evolution of Enamel Matrix Proteins	8
The De Novo Emergence of Two Brain Genes in the Human Lineage Appears to be Unsupported	8
Adaptation and Exaptation: From Small Molecules to Feathers	8
RNA or DNA? Revisiting the Chemical Nature of the Cenancestral Genome	8
Informatic Capabilities of Translation and Its Implications for the Origins of Life	7
A New View of the Last Universal Common Ancestor	7
EasyDIVER + : An Advanced Tool for Analyzing High Throughput Sequencing Data from In Vitro Evolution of Nucleic Acids or Amino Acids	7
A Law of Redundancy Compounds the Problem of Cancer and Precision Medicine	7
GC Content Across Insect Genomes: Phylogenetic Patterns, Causes and Consequences	7
Best Practices in Designing, Sequencing, and Identifying Random DNA Barcodes	7
Correction: Sequence Divergence in Venom Genes Within and Between Montane Pitviper (Viperidae: Crotalinae: Cerrophidion) Species is Driven by Mutation–Drift Equilibrium	7
Codon Usage Evolution in Viruses: Implications for Survival and Pathogenicity	7
Evolution and Functional Diversification of Serine Racemase Homologs in Bacteria	7
Biothermodynamics of Hemoglobin and Red Blood Cells: Analysis of Structure and Evolution of Hemoglobin and Red Blood Cells, Based on Molecular and Empirical Formulas, Biosynthesis Reactions, and Therm	7
PAReTT: A Python Package for the Automated Retrieval and Management of Divergence Time Data from the TimeTree Resource for Downstream Analyses	7
Promiscuous Domains in Eukaryotes and HAT Proteins in FUNGI Have Followed Different Evolutionary Paths	6
FEZF2 and AIRE1: An Evolutionary Trade-off in the Elimination of Auto-reactive T Cells in the Thymus	6
Evidence for Multiple Independent Expansions of Fox Gene Families Within Flatworms	6
Context-Dependent Mutation Dynamics, Not Selection, Explains the Codon Usage Bias of Most Angiosperm Chloroplast Genes	6
Deep Conservation and Unexpected Evolutionary History of Neighboring lncRNAs MALAT1 and NEAT1	6
Main Factors Shaping Amino Acid Usage Across Evolution	6
Analysis of the MCTP Amino Acid Sequence Reveals the Conservation of Putative Calcium- and Lipid-Binding Pockets Within the C2 Domains In Silico	6
Caspase Domain Duplication During the Evolution of Caspase-16	6
Origins and Functional Significance of Eukaryotic Protein Folds	6
Transposable Element Diversity Remains High in Gigantic Genomes	5
Tracking the Diversity and Chromosomal Distribution of the Olfactory Receptor Gene Repertoires of Three Anurans Species	5
OrthoGrafter: Rapid Identification of Orthologs from Precomputed Placement in Phylogenetic Trees	5
Evolutionary Nonindependence Between Human piRNAs and Their Potential Target Sites in Protein-Coding Genes	5
Co-evolution of alpha-helical transmembrane protein residues: large-scale variant profiling and complete mutational landscape of 2277 known PDB entries representing 504 unique human protein sequences	5
Is the Association of the Rare rs35667974 IFIH1 Gene Polymorphism With Autoimmune Diseases a Case of RNA Epigenetics?	5
Correlated Evolution Drives Structural Convergence of Interacting Proteins	5
Putative MutS2 Homologs in Algae: More Goods in Shopping Bag?	5
The Mystery of Cancer Resistance: A Revelation Within Nature	5
Selection Pressure Regulates the Evolution-Structure–Function Paradigm of Monocyte Chemoattractant Protein Family	5
Correction: Principles of Molecular Evolution: Concepts from Non-equilibrium Thermodynamics for the Multilevel Theory of Learning	5