Excited to share my PhD work https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.11.247098
Together with @Brookesloci, Scott Roy & @chris_21812, we have reconstructed the evolutionary history of intron presence/absence in Fungi and identified general modes of intron evolution (thread):

We find a general bias towards intron loss over intron gain. From an initially highly intron-rich fungal ancestor (>8 introns per kilobase, more than modern humans), we find that all modern species have experienced a net reduction in intron number.

Among individual branches on the tree, those experiencing net reduction in intron number outnumber those experiencing net intron increase by 10-to-1.

Among the dozen lineages undergoing truly massive intron loss (e.g., S. cerevisiae and relatives; smuts and allies), we find highly predictable patterns at the level of which genes retain introns, which specific introns are retained and the positions of these introns within genes

These patterns attest to a degree of shared intron functions previously unappreciated (end thread).