Multiple factors driving the acquisition efficiency of apple proliferation phytoplasma in .

Unlabelled: Phytoplasmas are bacterial pathogens located in the plant's phloem that are responsible for several plant diseases and are mainly transmitted by phloem-sucking insects. Apple proliferation (AP) is an economically important disease associated with the presence of ' Phytoplasma mali' which is transmitted by two psyllid species. While is a vector in different regions, the vector efficiency of varies between different populations.

Sexually antagonistic selection maintains genetic variance when sexual dimorphism evolves.

Genetic variance () in fitness related traits is often unexpectedly high, evoking the question how can be maintained in the face of selection. Sexually antagonistic (SA) selection favouring alternative alleles in the sexes is common and predicted to maintain , while directional selection should erode it. Both SA and sex-limited directional selection can lead to sex-specific adaptations but how each affect when sexual dimorphism evolves remain experimentally untested.

Limits to environmental masking of genetic quality in sexual signals.

There is considerable debate over the value of male sexual ornaments as signals of genetic quality. Studies alternately report that environmental variation enhances or diminishes the genetic signal, or leads to crossover where genotypes perform well in one environment but poorly in another. A unified understanding is lacking.

DNA Motifs Are Not General Predictors of Recombination in Two Drosophila Sister Species.

Meiotic recombination is crucial for chromosomal segregation and facilitates the spread of beneficial and removal of deleterious mutations. Recombination rates frequently vary along chromosomes and Drosophila melanogaster exhibits a remarkable pattern. Recombination rates gradually decrease toward centromeres and telomeres, with a dramatic impact on levels of variation in natural populations.

Variation in the benefits of multiple mating on female fertility in wild stalk-eyed flies.

Polyandry, female mating with multiple males, is widespread across many taxa and almost ubiquitous in insects. This conflicts with the traditional idea that females are constrained by their comparatively large investment in each offspring, and so should only need to mate once or a few times. Females may need to mate multiply to gain sufficient sperm supplies to maintain their fertility, especially in species in which male promiscuity results in division of their ejaculate among many females.

The complexity of mating decisions in stalk-eyed flies.

All too often, studies of sexual selection focus exclusively on the responses in one sex, on single traits, typically those that are exaggerated and strongly sexually dimorphic. They ignore a range of less obvious traits and behavior, in both sexes, involved in the interactions leading to mate choice. To remedy this imbalance, we analyze a textbook example of sexual selection in the stalk-eyed fly ().

Evolution: sex or survival.

A classic paradox in sexual selection is how sexual traits under strong directional selection maintain underlying genetic variation. A new study has found that in Soay sheep a trade-off between reproductive success and survival maintains variation in horn size.