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POPULATION IMPACT. "In genome regions with suppressed recombination, selection acting on either advantageous or disadvantageous mutations in the region affects all linked variants. This effectively restricts the size of the population, compared with the rest of the species’ genome, because some genotypes fail to reproduce. The effective population size can be considerably reduced for a Y chromosome that still carries many functional sequences." https://lnkd.in/exrSaeb View in LinkedIn

EVOLUTION. “Viruses are the leading edge of evolution.” https://lnkd.in/guhpmyR View in LinkedIn

EVOLUTION PATH. "If many adaptive changes occur when a chromosome in a co-sexual species evolves into a sex chromosome, this would suggest that trade-offs are common; that is, that these changes were maladaptive in co-sexual ancestors." https://lnkd.in/exrSaeb View in LinkedIn

BOMBSHELL. “We are the descendants of viruses.” https://lnkd.in/guhpmyR View in LinkedIn

SPECIATION DRIVER. "These data provide strong evidence that sexual selection is driving behavioural isolation and speciation, supporting sexual selection as a cause for speciation in the wild." https://lnkd.in/eBtiTBE View in LinkedIn

ISOLATION. "One proposed mechanism of speciation is divergent sexual selection, whereby divergence in female preferences and male signals results in behavioural isolation." https://lnkd.in/eBtiTBE View in LinkedIn

CRAYFISH RAPID SPECIATION. "Generally, new species arise gradually over long periods of time, but the genetic studies indicate that in this case speciation was virtually instantaneous, something that happens in plants but is very rare in animals. And the marbled crayfish is the only one among its 14,000 crustacean relatives able to clone itself." https://lnkd.in/epB74fM View in LinkedIn

GENETIC DIVIDE. "In the new study, published this month on the bioRxiv preprint server, researchers show that the slough crayfish males can’t fertilize marbled crayfish eggs, a hallmark of a species split, and that the clones contain enough genetic differences to justify designating them a separate species." https://lnkd.in/epB74fM View in LinkedIn

CRAYFISH THREE CHROMOSOMES. "Genetically, the clones—known as marbled crayfish because of their appearance —are similar to slough crayfish (Procambarus fallax), which are found in Florida and Georgia, except they have three sets of chromosomes instead of the typical two." https://lnkd.in/epB74fM View in LinkedIn

CRAYFISH FINDING. "The all-female clones were first discovered in 1995 by German pet traders and quickly became a popular addition to home aquariums. Later, they escaped into the wild, where they have become a threat to native crayfish in several places, including Madagascar." https://lnkd.in/epB74fM View in LinkedIn