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NEUROSPORA CRASSA "are sexually dichotomous, producing conidia and protoperithecia, which have been described cytologically and behaviorally as male and female sexual structures, respectively." https://lnkd.in/eUbE-is View in LinkedIn

NEUROSPORA SEXUAL GENE EXPRESSION. "Sexually dimorphic gene expression and its connection to molecular evolution are particularly strong for genes associated with sexual structures. Genes with higher expression in male sexual organs and gametes often exhibit more pronounced interspecific protein divergence than those from female sexual tissues or nonsexual tissues." https://lnkd.in/eUbE-is View in LinkedIn

NEUROSPORA. "Female-biased genes also had a greater portion of sites that experienced positive selection and showed stronger signals of selective sweeps than male-biased genes, suggesting that the rapid evolution is at least partly driven by adaptive evolution." https://lnkd.in/eUbE-is View in LinkedIn

NEUROSPORA RARE FEMALE ACCELERATION. "Our data showed that N. crassa comprises a rare example of an organism where female-biased genes evolve rapidly; they exhibited faster evolution at the protein level and reduced optimal codon usage compared with male-biased genes, sexually unbiased genes, and vegetative genes." https://lnkd.in/eUbE-is View in LinkedIn

UNEQUAL EVOLUTION. "Sex differences in expression have been connected to gene divergence in numerous eukaryotes. For instance, genes with enriched transcription in males, commonly referred to as male-biased genes, typically evolve more rapidly at the protein level than female-biased or unbiased genes." https://lnkd.in/eUbE-is View in LinkedIn

GENETIC ORIGINS. "Sex differences in transcription have been linked to molecular evolution: genes with higher expression in male compared with female sexual tissues (i.e., male-biased genes) have been associated with rapid gene divergence in various animals and plants, implying that selective differences exist among the sexual structures." https://lnkd.in/eUbE-is View in LinkedIn

NEUROSPORA UNEQUAL EXPRESSION. "Differential gene expression is believed to largely explain sexually dichotomous phenotypes. This phenomenon is especially significant in hermaphrodites, in which male and female sexual tissues have identical genotypes." https://lnkd.in/eUbE-is View in LinkedIn

CASE STUDY 2. HERMAPHRODITE FUNGUS NEUROSPORA CRASSA serves to illustrate a second case of reproductive flexibility. View in LinkedIn

NEUROSPORA HARD CALL. “Fully distinguishing between natural and sexual selection is a challenging task involving aspects of molecular function, physiology, behavior, and ecology." https://lnkd.in/eUbE-is View in LinkedIn

SO ENDS this first of two weekends on the topic of biological information, which many believe is a defining part of what differentiates life from non-life. Prions are at least one exception, being relatively simple molecules that can evolve and reproduce. My favorite take-away from this section is that life is information that can replicate. This completely reframes the question and perspective, and does broadly include quirks like prions. View in LinkedIn