Background: Cryptic species are two or more distinct but morphologically similar species that were classified as a single species. During the past two decades we observed an exponential growth of publications on cryptic species. Recently published reviews have demonstrated cryptic species have profound consequences on many biological disciplines. It has been proposed that their distribution is ...

Robust biological systems are expected to accumulate cryptic genetic variation that does not affect the system output in standard conditions yet may play an evolutionary role once phenotypically expressed under a strong perturbation. Genetic variation that is cryptic relative to a robust trait may accumulate neutrally as it does not change the phenotype, yet it could also evolve under selection...

Understanding how populations respond to rapid environmental change is critical both for preserving biodiversity and for human health. An increasing number of studies have shown that genetic variation that has no discernable effect under common ecological conditions can become amplified under stressful or novel conditions, suggesting that environmental change per se can provide the raw material...

We define a new rearrangement, called rearrangement by tamping, for non-negative measurable functions defined on R+. This has many properties in common with the well-known Schwarz non-increasing such as Pólya–Szegő inequality. Contrary to tamping also preserves homogeneous Dirichlet boundary condition of function.

Cytoplasmic aggregation of TDP-43, accompanied by its nuclear clearance, is a key common pathological hallmark of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia (ALS-FTD). However, a limited understanding of this RNA-binding protein (RBP) impedes the clarification of pathogenic mechanisms underlying TDP-43 proteinopathy. In contrast to RBPs that regulate splicing of conserved exons, ...

Complexes of cryptic species are rapidly being discovered in many parasite taxa, including trematodes. However, after they are found, cryptic species are rarely distinguished from each other with respect to key ecological or life history traits. In this study, we applied an integrative taxonomic approach to the discovery of cryptic species within Stegodexamene anguillae, a facultatively progene...

The taxonomic challenge posed by cryptic species (two or more distinct species classified as a single species) has been recognized for nearly 300 years, but the advent of relatively inexpensive and rapid DNA sequencing has given biologists a new tool for detecting and differentiating morphologically similar species. Here, we synthesize the literature on cryptic and sibling species and discuss t...

Making genes into gene products is subject to predictable errors, each with a phenotypic effect that depends on a normally cryptic sequence. Many cryptic sequences have strongly deleterious effects, for example when they cause protein misfolding. Strongly deleterious effects can be avoided globally by avoiding making errors (e.g., via proofreading machinery) or locally by ensuring that each err...

H3K36 methylation by Set2 targets Rpd3S histone deacetylase to transcribed regions of mRNA genes, repressing internal cryptic promoters and slowing elongation. Here we explore the function of this pathway by analysing transcription in yeast undergoing a series of carbon source shifts. Approximately 80 mRNA genes show increased induction upon SET2 deletion. A majority of these promoters have ove...