Towards the conservation of the crucian carp in Europe: Prolific hybridization but no evidence for introgression between native and non-native taxa.

Hybridization plays a pivotal role in evolution, influencing local adaptation and speciation. However, it can also reduce biodiversity, which is especially damaging when native and non-native species meet. Hybridization can threaten native species via competition (with vigorous hybrids), reproductive resource wastage and gene introgression.

The future of sex and gender in research.

Our understanding of sex and gender evolves. We asked scientists about their work and the future of sex and gender research. They discuss, among other things, interdisciplinary collaboration, moving beyond binary conceptualizations, accounting for intersecting factors, reproductive strategies, expanding research on sex-related differences, and sex's dynamic nature.

Identification of a candidate sex determination gene in Culaea inconstans suggests convergent recruitment of an Amh duplicate in two lineages of stickleback.

Sex chromosomes vary greatly in their age and levels of differentiation across the tree of life. This variation is largely due to the rates of sex chromosome turnover in different lineages; however, we still lack an explanation for why sex chromosomes are so conserved in some lineages (e.g.

Identification of ancestral sex chromosomes in the frog Glandirana rugosa bearing XX-XY and ZZ-ZW sex-determining systems.

Sex chromosomes constantly exist in a dynamic state of evolution: rapid turnover and change of heterogametic sex during homomorphic state, and often stepping out to a heteromorphic state followed by chromosomal decaying. However, the forces driving these different trajectories of sex chromosome evolution are still unclear. The Japanese frog Glandirana rugosa is one taxon well suited to the study on these driving forces.

Mass of genes rather than master genes underlie the genomic architecture of amphibian speciation.

The genetic architecture of speciation, i.e., how intrinsic genomic incompatibilities promote reproductive isolation (RI) between diverging lineages, is one of the best-kept secrets of evolution.

Expanding the classical paradigm: what we have learnt from vertebrates about sex chromosome evolution.

Until recently, the field of sex chromosome evolution has been dominated by the canonical unidirectional scenario, first developed by Muller in 1918. This model postulates that sex chromosomes emerge from autosomes by acquiring a sex-determining locus. Recombination reduction then expands outwards from this locus, to maintain its linkage with sexually antagonistic/advantageous alleles, resulting in Y or W degeneration and potentially culminating in their disappearance.

A neutral model for the loss of recombination on sex chromosomes.

The loss of recombination between sex chromosomes has occurred repeatedly throughout nature, with important implications for their subsequent evolution. Explanations for this remarkable convergence have generally invoked only adaptive processes (e.g.

Capture and return of sexual genomes by hybridogenetic frogs provide clonal genome enrichment in a sexual species.

Hybridogenesis is a reproductive tool for sexual parasitism. Hybridogenetic hybrids use gametes from their sexual host for their own reproduction, but sexual species gain no benefit from such matings as their genome is later eliminated. Here, we examine the presence of sexual parasitism in water frogs through crossing experiments and genome-wide data.

Meiosis reveals the early steps in the evolution of a neo-XY sex chromosome pair in the African pygmy mouse Mus minutoides.

Sex chromosomes of eutherian mammals are highly different in size and gene content, and share only a small region of homology (pseudoautosomal region, PAR). They are thought to have evolved through an addition-attrition cycle involving the addition of autosomal segments to sex chromosomes and their subsequent differentiation. The events that drive this process are difficult to investigate because sex chromosomes in almost all mammals are at a very advanced stage of differentiation.

Hybridization and introgression between toads with different sex chromosome systems.

The growing interest in the lability of sex determination in non-model vertebrates such as amphibians and fishes has revealed high rates of sex chromosome turnovers among closely related species of the same clade. Can such lineages hybridize and admix with different sex-determining systems, or could the changes have precipitated their speciation? We addressed these questions in incipient species of toads (Bufonidae), where we identified a heterogametic transition and characterized their hybrid zone with genome-wide markers (RADseq). Adult and sibship data confirmed that the common toad is female heterogametic (ZW), while its sister species the spined toad is male heterogametic (XY).

Novel genetic sex markers reveal high frequency of sex reversal in wild populations of the agile frog (Rana dalmatina) associated with anthropogenic land use.

Populations of ectothermic vertebrates are vulnerable to environmental pollution and climate change because certain chemicals and extreme temperatures can cause sex reversal during early ontogeny (i.e. genetically female individuals develop male phenotype or vice versa), which may distort population sex ratios.

Are glacial refugia hotspots of speciation and cytonuclear discordances? Answers from the genomic phylogeography of Spanish common frogs.

Subdivided Pleistocene glacial refugia, best known as "refugia within refugia", provided opportunities for diverging populations to evolve into incipient species and/or to hybridize and merge following range shifts tracking the climatic fluctuations, potentially promoting extensive cytonuclear discordances and "ghost" mtDNA lineages. Here, we tested which of these opposing evolutionary outcomes prevails in northern Iberian areas hosting multiple historical refugia of common frogs (Rana cf. temporaria), based on a genomic phylogeography approach (mtDNA barcoding and RAD-sequencing).

Mapping of Multiple Complementary Sex Determination Loci in a Parasitoid Wasp.

Sex determination has evolved in a variety of ways and can depend on environmental and genetic signals. A widespread form of genetic sex determination is haplodiploidy, where unfertilized, haploid eggs develop into males and fertilized diploid eggs into females. One of the molecular mechanisms underlying haplodiploidy in Hymenoptera, the large insect order comprising ants, bees, and wasps, is complementary sex determination (CSD).

Population genomics of an exceptional hybridogenetic system of Pelophylax water frogs.

Background: Hybridogenesis can represent the first stage towards hybrid speciation where the hybrid taxon eventually weans off its parental species. In hybridogenetic water frogs, the hybrid Pelophylax kl. esculentus (genomes RL) usually eliminates one genome from its germline and relies on its parental species P.

A rapid rate of sex-chromosome turnover and non-random transitions in true frogs.

The canonical model of sex-chromosome evolution predicts that, as recombination is suppressed along sex chromosomes, gametologs will progressively differentiate, eventually becoming heteromorphic. However, there are numerous examples of homomorphic sex chromosomes across the tree of life. This homomorphy has been suggested to result from frequent sex-chromosome turnovers, yet we know little about which forces drive them.

Tissue Specificity and Dynamics of Sex-Biased Gene Expression in a Common Frog Population with Differentiated, Yet Homomorphic, Sex Chromosomes.

Sex-biased genes are central to the study of sexual selection, sexual antagonism, and sex chromosome evolution. We describe a comprehensive de novo assembled transcriptome in the common frog based on five developmental stages and three adult tissues from both sexes, obtained from a population with karyotypically homomorphic but genetically differentiated sex chromosomes. This allows the study of sex-biased gene expression throughout development, and its effect on the rate of gene evolution while accounting for pleiotropic expression, which is known to negatively correlate with the evolutionary rate.

Genetic evidence challenges the native status of a threatened freshwater fish () in England.

A fundamental consideration for the conservation of a species is the extent of its native range, that is, regions naturally colonized. However, both natural processes and human-mediated introductions can drive species distribution shifts. Ruling out the human-mediated introduction of a species into a given region is vital for its conservation, but remains a significant challenge in most cases.

Comparing RADseq and microsatellites to infer complex phylogeographic patterns, an empirical perspective in the Crucian carp, Carassius carassius, L.

The conservation of threatened species must be underpinned by phylogeographic knowledge. This need is epitomized by the freshwater fish Carassius carassius, which is in decline across much of its European range. Restriction site-associated DNA sequencing (RADseq) is increasingly used for such applications; however, RADseq is expensive, and limitations on sample number must be weighed against the benefit of large numbers of markers.

Characteristics and drivers of high-altitude ladybird flight: insights from vertical-looking entomological radar.

Understanding the characteristics and drivers of dispersal is crucial for predicting population dynamics, particularly in range-shifting species. Studying long-distance dispersal in insects is challenging, but recent advances in entomological radar offer unique insights. We analysed 10 years of radar data collected at Rothamsted Research, U.