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1. Parasexuality of Candida Species

   https://doi.org/10.3389/fcimb.2021.796929  

   Mishra, Abhishek; Forche, Anja; Anderson, Matthew Z. (December 2021, Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology)

   While most fungi have the ability to reproduce sexually, multiple independent lineages have lost meiosis and developed parasexual cycles in its place. Emergence of parasexual cycles is particularly prominent in medically relevant fungi from the CUG paraphyletic group of Candida species. Since the discovery of parasex in C. albicans roughly two decades ago, it has served as the model for Candida species. Importantly, parasex in C. albicans retains hallmarks of meiosis including genetic recombination and chromosome segregation, making it a potential driver of genetic diversity. Furthermore, key meiotic genes play similar roles in C. albicans parasex and highlights parallels between these processes. Yet, the evolutionary role of parasex in Candida adaptation and the extent of resulting genotypic and phenotypic diversity remain as key knowledge gaps in this facultative reproductive program. Here, we present our current understanding of parasex, the mechanisms governing its regulation, and its relevance to Candida biology. 

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2. Epidemics in native species influence the outcome of a species invasion

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-023-05444-4  

   Blackwood, Paradyse E.; Jonasen, Kacie L.; Hoenig, Brandon D.; Heil, Brittany N.; Searle, Catherine L. (February 2024, Oecologia)
3. Neural basis of acoustic species recognition in a cryptic species complex

   https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.243405  

   Gupta, Saumya; Alluri, Rishi K.; Rose, Gary J.; Bee, Mark A. (December 2021, Journal of Experimental Biology)

   ABSTRACT Sexual traits that promote species recognition are important drivers of reproductive isolation, especially among closely related species. Identifying neural processes that shape species differences in recognition is crucial for understanding the causal mechanisms of reproductive isolation. Temporal patterns are salient features of sexual signals that are widely used in species recognition by several taxa, including anurans. Recent advances in our understanding of temporal processing by the anuran auditory system provide an opportunity to investigate the neural basis of species-specific recognition. The anuran inferior colliculus consists of neurons that are selective for temporal features of calls. Of potential relevance are auditory neurons known as interval-counting neurons (ICNs) that are often selective for the pulse rate of conspecific advertisement calls. Here, we tested the hypothesis that ICNs mediate acoustic species recognition by exploiting the known differences in temporal selectivity in two cryptic species of gray treefrog (Hyla chrysoscelis and Hyla versicolor). We examined the extent to which the threshold number of pulses required to elicit behavioral responses from females and neural responses from ICNs was similar within each species but potentially different between the two species. In support of our hypothesis, we found that a species difference in behavioral pulse number thresholds closely matched the species difference in neural pulse number thresholds. However, this relationship held only for ICNs that exhibited band-pass tuning for conspecific pulse rates. Together, these findings suggest that differences in temporal processing of a subset of ICNs provide a mechanistic explanation for reproductive isolation between two cryptic treefrog species. 

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4. Taxonomic revision of Madagascan species of the Pheidole fervens species-group (Hymenoptera, Formicidae)

   https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0244195  

   Salata, Sebastian; Fisher, Brian L. (January 2021, PLOS ONE)

   ZHANG, Feng (Ed.)

   Madagascar, one of the top megadiversity regions, hosts one of the highest numbers of endemic and threatened organisms on earth. One of the most spectacular examples of ant radiation on the island has occurred in the hyperdiverse genus Pheidole . To this date, there are 117 described Madagascan Pheidole divided into 16 species-groups, and 97% of them are endemic to the island. Only two of these species-groups contain widely distributed invasive species in addition to native, endemic taxa: megacephala , and fervens species-groups. Here we revise the fervens species-group and discuss updated distribution records of its introduced members on Madagascar. We recognize six species belonging to this group, including five new to science: Pheidole ampangabe sp. nov., P . arivo sp. nov., P . comosa sp. nov., P . indica Mayr, P . mamirapiratra sp. nov., and P . mena sp. nov. Detailed descriptions are supplemented with measurements, diagnoses, identification key, high-resolution images for major and minor worker, and comments on distribution and biology. 

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5. The Distribution of Species Interactions

   https://doi.org/10.1086/727939  

   Karban, Richard; Agrawal, Anurag A. (December 2023, The Quarterly Review of Biology)