Editorial Changes at the Journal of Molecular Evolution

Abstract

On January 1, 2013 Martin Kreitman stepped down as editor-in-chief (EIC) of the Journal of Molecular Evolution after 15 years in this role. During this time the rich tradition of this journal has continued, and the readership base has broadened. These have been exciting times in the fields and sub-fields that connect to the topic of molecular evolution. The human genome was completely sequenced, and we have seen an explosion of genomic-wide data, the advent of high-throughput sequencing, fascinating developments in the interface between development and evolution (‘‘evo-devo’’), the burgeoning of an understanding of the role of small RNAs in gene regulation, rapid advances in high-throughput X-ray crystallization-based structure determination of both proteins and nucleic acids, sweeping advances in computational hardware and techniques, and the entrenchment of the Internet as the means by which data is stored, analyzed, and shared, and by which scientific publishing is accomplished. Through all of this, Marty has strove to bring the highest quality research to JME, but for personal reasons has chosen to step down as EIC and focus on other issues. I will become the new EIC for JME after having been an associate editor (AE) with the journal since 1996. I received my B.S. in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley in 1984 and stayed on to obtain a Master’s degree with Tom Jukes in the Space Sciences Laboratory at Berkeley in 1986, studying the evolution of the genetic code. I was Tom’s last graduate student and first became exposed to the rich field of molecular evolution—and to JME—during my stay in Tom’s lab. I then moved to UCLA to be one of the first Center for the Study of Evolution and the Origins of Life (CSEOL) Fellows at UCLA, a program founded by J. William Schopf. There I worked with Bob Wayne and Chuck Taylor on the molecular population genetics of canids and received my Ph.D. in 1990. From there I moved on to be a post-doctoral fellow at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA, working with Jerry Joyce on the in vitro evolution of the Tetrahymena ribozyme. I then did a second post-doc with Mike Lynch at the University of Oregon studying phylogenetics and speciation in the freshwater microcrustacean Daphnia. After two tenure-track appointments at other universities, I arrived at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon in 2001 where I am now a full professor of Chemistry. My current research focuses on the use of catalytic RNAs to study self-replication, molecular cooperation, and the advent and evolution of genetic information during the origins of life on the Earth. Several Ph.D. students have graduated from my lab at Portland State, supported by funding by through various NASA programs such as Exobiology and Evolutionary Biology. This editorial change marks only the second one in JME’s history. The journal was founded in 1971, when Conrad Springer offered Emile Zuckerkandl, who along with Linus Pauling had originated the idea of the molecular clock, the position of EIC (Bernardi 2012). Zuckerkandl accepted, and with a staff of four editors and 41 editorial board members, the journal published its first issue in the summer of 1971. Among the four editors was Dick Dickerson, a pioneer in the study of DNA structure and coincidentally on my Ph.D. committee at UCLA. Another of the editors was Jack Lester King, co-author with Tom Jukes of a classic 1969 paper entitled ‘‘Non-Darwinian Evolution’’ (King and Jukes 1969), which helped to define the study of molecular evolution. The editorial board N. Lehman (&) Department of Chemistry, Portland State University, Portland, OR 97207, USA e-mail: jme1@pdx.edu; niles@pdx.edu