A new journal is out - Genome Biology and Evolution. To my surprise, it actually looks quite good, with high-quality pieces. I generally don't see many new journals I like, but this one fills a needed niche. A lot of genome papers bear on evolution, but the authors aren't really evolutionary biologists; many evolutionary biologists don't have a lot of contact with hard-core genomics. But there is a growing community of researchers who function well in both worlds, and this journal fits that community.

As the editors say:

About 50 years ago, the field of molecular evolution emerged at the interface of population genetics and molecular biology. The field grew rapidly, vitalized by advances in protein and nucleotide sequencing technology. Today, advances in genomic technologies are revolutionizing our perspectives on evolution once again. All genome data bear witness to the evolutionary process. The growth of the genomics field also spawned many successful journals dedicated to genomics, but none that were specifically dedicated to the study of genome evolution—until now. The fields of molecular evolution and genomics are rapidly merging. The Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution (SMBE) has observed this development over the years, in particular, at the SMBE annual meeting, where genome evolution and population genomics continue to generate highlights within the society and within the field as a whole.


If you're interested in diving in, start with this one (it's open access): "Independent Mammalian Genome Contractions Following the KT Boundary" - in other words, what happened to mammalian genomes after the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs?