Ya-Long Guo

TL;DR: The 207-Mb genome sequence of the North American Arabidopsis lyrata strain MN47, based on 8.3× dideoxy sequence coverage, is reported, indicating pervasive selection for a smaller genome in this outcrossing species.

TL;DR: The transition to selfing may be typified by parallel shifts in gene expression, along with a measurable reduction of purifying selection, similar to that seen in Arabidopsis, which self fertilization evolved about 1 million years ago.

TL;DR: It is shown that transposable elements—particularly siRNA-targeted TEs—are associated with reduced gene expression within both species and also with gene expression differences between orthologs, and that A. lyrata TEs are targeted by a lower fraction of uniquely matching siRNAs, which are associated with more effective silencing of TE expression.

TL;DR: Comparison of nucleotide diversity patterns of the 2 species found that C. rubella has only 1 or 2 alleles at most loci, suggesting that it originated through an extreme population bottleneck, and suggests that this species will be an interesting model to understand divergence and adaptation, starting from very limited standing genetic variation.

TL;DR: This study compared the NB-LRR gene complement of the selfer Arabidopsis thaliana and its outcrossing close relativeArabidopsis lyrata to show a clearly positive relationship between interspecific divergence and intraspecific polymorphisms.