There are two very interesting aspects to the evolution of sex chromosomes: what happens after recombination between these chromosome pairs stops and why suppressed recombination evolves. The former question has been intensively studied in a diversity of organisms, but the latter has been studied largely theoretically. To obtain empirical data, we used codominant genic markers in genetic mappin...

Silene latifolia is a well-studied model system for plant XY sex determination. Three maleness factors are thought to function on the Y chromosome, gynoecium suppression factor (GSF), stamen-promoting factor (SPF), and male fertility factor (MFF), and their deletions result in hermaphrodites, anther defects, and pollen defects, respectively. Although a framework map of the Y chromosome exists, ...

An impressive biodiversity (>10,000 species) of marine snails (suborder Toxoglossa or superfamily Conoidea) have complex venoms, each containing approximately 100 biologically active, disulfide-rich peptides. In the genus Conus, the most intensively investigated toxoglossan lineage (∼500 species), a small set of venom gene superfamilies undergo rapid sequence hyperdiversification within their m...

Cone snails are venomous predatory marine neogastropods that belong to the species-rich superfamily of the Conoidea. So far, the mitochondrial genomes of two cone snail species (Conus textile and Conus borgesi) have been described, and these feed on snails and worms, respectively. Here, we report the mitochondrial genome sequence of the fish-hunting cone snail Conus consors and describe a novel...

The presence of large genomic regions with suppressed recombination (SR) is a key shared property of some sex- and mating-type determining (mat) chromosomes identified to date in animals, plants, and fungi. Why such regions form and how they evolve remain central questions in evolutionary genetics. The smut fungus Microbotryum lychnis-dioicae is a basidiomycete fungus in which dimorphic mat chr...

Alpine ecosystems are important globally with high levels of endemic and rare species. Given that they will be highly impacted by climate change, understanding biotic factors that maintain diversity is critical. Silene acaulis is a common alpine nurse plant shown to positively influence the diversity and abundance of organisms--predominantly other plant species. The hypothesis that cushion or n...

Anther smuts on Silene acaulis and S. uniflora from the Outer Hebrides, Scotland, UK), are analysed using morphological and molecular techniques, and found to represent Microbotryum silenes-acaulis and M. silenes-inflatae, respectively. This is the first identification of caryophyllaceous anther smuts in the Outer Hebrides according to modern species concepts and the first report of Microbotryu...

Understanding the routes of pathogen introduction contributes greatly to efforts to protect against future disease emergence. Here, we investigated the history of the invasion in North America by the fungal pathogen Microbotryum lychnidis-dioicae, which causes the anther smut disease on the white campion Silene latifolia. This system is a well-studied model in evolutionary biology and ecology o...