Cool Stuff on PLoS Today

In PLoS Biology:

High-Resolution Genome-Wide Dissection of the Two Rules of Speciation in Drosophila:

The evolution of reproductive isolation is a fundamental step in the origin of species. One kind of reproductive isolation, the sterility and inviability of species hybrids, is characterized by two of the strongest rules in evolutionary biology. The first is Haldane's rule: for species crosses in which just one hybrid sex is sterile or inviable, it tends to be the sex defined by having a pair of dissimilar sex chromosomes (e.g., the "XY" of males in humans). The second rule is the large X effect: the X chromosome has a disproportionately large effect on hybrid fitness. We dissected the genetic causes of these two rules of speciation by replacing many small chromosomal segments of the fruit fly Drosophila sechellia with those of a closely related species, D. mauritiana. Together, these segments cover 70% of the genome. We found that virtually all segments causing hybrid sterility or inviability act recessively and that hybrid male sterility is by far the most common type of hybrid incompatibility, confirming two leading theories about the causes of Haldane's rule. We also found that X-linked segments are more likely to cause hybrid male sterility than similarly sized autosomal segments. These results show that the large X effect is caused by a higher density of hybrid incompatibilities on the X chromosome.

In PLos Medicine - a series of policy papers from the Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative aimed towards solving health problems in the developing world:

Grand Challenges in Global Health: The Ethical, Social and Cultural Program:

Grand Challenges in Global Health: Ethical, Social, and Cultural Issues Based on Key Informant Perspectives:

Grand Challenges in Global Health: Community Engagement in Research in Developing Countries:

Grand Challenges in Global Health: Engaging Civil Society Organizations in Biomedical Research in Developing Countries:

In PLoS Computational Biology - a compilation of wildly popular "Ten Simple Rules" articles on the professional development for career scientists, now all on a single PDF:

Ten Simple Rules for a Good Poster Presentation

Ten Simple Rules for Making Good Oral Presentations

Ten Simple Rules for a Successful Collaboration

Ten Simple Rules for Selecting a Postdoctoral Position

Ten Simple Rules for Reviewers

Ten Simple Rules for Getting Grants

Ten Simple Rules for Getting Published